Shipwrecked
by Looka'sMagicHell
Summary: I'm Sam Manson. Me and seven other people went on a school cruise, only to get stuck in a thunderstorm. We crashed on an island with no location on a map, and no history. Oh, and have I mentioned there are dinosaurs on this island? COMPLETE! XD
1. Getting ready for torture

**Author's Note: **Okay, so here's another Danny Phantom adventure. Looks like Sam will get tortured here, though she has no idea what real torture lies ahead.

**FULL SUMMARY: **I'm Sam Manson. Me and seven other people went on a school cruise. But on the first day on the ship, we ot caught in a big thunderstorm. And the ship crashed into a stone wall, then on an island with no location on a map, and no history. It also has an affect on Danny's powers, making him unable to turn into Phantom. Oh, and have I mentioned there are dinasours on this island?

**Disclaimer: **Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman, not me. Too bad...

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_**Chapter one**_

_**Getting ready for torture**_

_Manson Mansion, Amity Park, Indiana_

_Sam's POV_

"Sammy!" my mother, Pamela, yelled from downstairs. "Come on, honey, you're gonna be late!"

I let out a sigh. Great; just what I needed. My parents are making me go to that stupid school trip on a cruise. It's not like I don't want to go, it's just that that means more boring time, and less ghost fights. (My life must be exciting just because of the ghost fights.) But the good thing is that Danny and Tucker will be coming too, thank God for that.

Anyway, I got out of my room, and went downstairs. I hadn't packed all that much, just one suitcase. My butler was waiting with the bag by the door.

"We'll miss you honey," mom said as she pulled me to give me a hug. I rolled my eyes. Yeah right, like she's ever gonna miss me.

"Yeah, mom," I said, faking a smile. "I'll miss you guys too."

I went into the car, and my chauffer – James – drove off. We chatted the whole trip – we got used to each other and became friends – about whatever it is we could talk about.

"We're here," he said, pulling over. Sam sighed, untied her seatbelt, and got out of the car. James just watched me as I got the bag out of the car. That's what I like about him, he leaves me do whatever I want. Unlike those people in movies, open the door for you, get out your bags, be your personal slave, blah blah blah…

"See ya, James," I told him, waving my hand. He smiled, and watched me walk away.

I noticed Danny and Tucker departing the ship, and I walked over to them.

"Hey guys," I said, walking up to them. "Ready for the boring torture?"

"Boring?" Tucker said, just as she expected. "They have a video room, a library full of computers" – he grinned evilly – "And have I mentioned Valerie's coming?"

"You and your stupid crush on Valerie," I muttered under my breath, shaking my head. "You're still trying to get her attention?"

"Hmm, let me see," he said. "We are on a cruise; we'll be staying on the ship for almost over a month. Beautiful sunsets, scenes like they're from _Titanic_. Yeah, this is so gonna work."

"Well, good luck with that," Danny chuckled. We finally got on the ship, and went to the front desk.

When the guy at the front desk checked our names, we settled in our rooms. And how shocked was I when I saw who my roommates are…

"Hey, Goth," Paulina said when I entered the room. "Your bed's over there. And if you even bother touching my stuff, you'll be sorry."

I snorted. Yeah, like she would be a threat. Shaking my head, I went over to my new bed. This was going to be a really long trip…

"Ugh, why me?" I complained to Tucker in annoyance. "That shallow witch _had _to be my roommate?"

"Come on, it can't be that bad," Tucker said with a laugh. I glared at him, and then rolled my eyes.

"Hmm," Danny said thoughtfully. "You think you can get her to talk to me?"

My mouth dropped open. Great, he was using me now.

"No," I said. "Because I think I'll be doing my best to avoid her."

"That might be kinda hard," Tucker said. "Considering she's your roommate and all."

"Wait," I grinned evilly. "Who are your roommates, anyway?"

"Still don't know," Danny shrugged. "Who else from our school is on this trip?"

Right then, Dash and Kwan came out of a room right next to Danny's and Tucker's room. They came over to us, and Dash said, "Looks like we're living next door, Fenton. When you wake up next morning, expect your boxers to be gone."

As they walked away, I covered my hand over my mouth to prevent myself from laughing. Danny groaned and slammed his head on the table, while Tucker stared after them in horror.

"But I like my boxers," Tucker said after a second. I couldn't help it then, so I just let out a little giggle.

"And I thought I had it bad," I bit my lip, trying to hold my laughter.

"And I thought this was gonna be fun," Tucker murmured. "I'd have my chances with Valerie; I'd have fun in the game room. But no, I had to get stuck with Dash and Kwan. Life isn't fair."

"Welcome to my world," Danny and I said at the exact same time. But then Valerie passed by our table, and went to sit with Paulina and Star.

Tucker shrugged. "Maybe things might get better," he drooled over Valerie. "And she's the reason things will be much, much better."

"Uh-oh," Danny said, knowing what was coming next. I knew too, so I joined in with him, "Here comes the goo-goo eyes."

"Hey, Valerie," he got up, and went to join them. I shook my head, and looked back at Danny. He looked at me, and said, "If she slaps him, you're gonna be the shoulder for him to cry on."

"Hey, I was his shoulder last time," I complained. He let out a chuckle. "Besides, I don't think she'll slap him. I mean, it's the first day on the ship, no one probably even unpacked. Speaking of which, I think I gotta go unpack before Paulina makes any comments on my clothes."

"Okay," he said as I got up. "See ya later."

I walked over to my cabin, and went over to my bed. As I said before, I didn't bring many clothes. So it only took me almost half and hour to unpack. When I was almost done, Paulina came in the room.

"Hey Goth," she greeted. I took a deep breath.

"Okay, Paulina," I said calmly. "Now that we're gonna be sharing the same room, I have some rules. Number 1, stop calling me Goth, I have a name, and it's Sam. Number 2, no commenting on my clothes, okay? Number 3, stay to your business, and you stay to yours. Number 4 –"

"This is a very long list," she interrupted rudely, lying on her bed and pulling out a magazine. "I prefer one rule, you stay on your side, and I stay on mine."

"Okay, I can live with that," I agreed, giving it a thought.

After I was fully done unpacking, I sat on my bed, and started writing in my journal. I was going through what was happening, until I found Paulina standing behind me, staring at what I was writing.

"Paulina," I sighed, closing my journal. "You stay on your side, remember?"

She didn't go back on her bed as I expected. She just stood there, snickering.

"Looks like little miss Goth here has a diary," she snickered. "You're not as tough as you want people to think, Goth."

I sighed. I got up from bed, put my journal in my bag, and headed to the door.

"I don't care what people think," I informed her as I got out of the cabin. I went over to a table, sat down on one of the chairs, and got out my camera. I took a few photos of the beautiful views of the ocean and the sky. The sun was just a few inches over the water, and I was waiting for the sunset. I was about to shoot the view when Danny and Tucker sat down beside me.

"Hey guys," I said, putting down the camera.

"Taking a few shots there, Sammy?" Danny teased, grinning. I rolled my eyes, took advantage of the look on his face, and snapped a picture.

"Yep," I said, putting down the camera to see the picture. I stared dreamily at the screen at his messy, dark hair, sky blue eyes, breathtaking smile –

"Yo, Sam, snap out of it," Tucker said, snapping his fingers in front of my face. "Watcha staring at?"

I blinked, but quickly switched the picture to a picture of the ocean, and Tucker went over my shoulder to see it.

"Just the ocean, see?" I told him, showing him the picture. Right then, Valerie walked by.

"I've got something else I'm staring at," he informed us, and quickly got up to follow her. All Danny and I could do was sigh. When I looked over to the ocean, it was sunset. I quickly snatched my camera, got up, and went over to the edge of the ship. I aimed my camera at the sunset, and snapped a picture.

"Never saw a sunset like that before," Danny said, coming to stand beside me. I took a few other photos of the sunset. The sun had fully sunk beneath the waves then.

"Yeah," I agreed, turning to look at him. Our eyes made contact, and we locked gazes. We only turned away when Danny's phone rang, and we blushed.

"It's Jazz," he sighed. He walked away to get a more privet place, while I took some pictures of the twilight.

I walked back into my cabin, only to find Paulina, Star and Valerie gossiping together. I ignored them, went over to my bed, and got out my journal. I glued the photos I shot today to my journal.

"Who's on your mind?" I heard Valerie ask Star.

"Well, Kwan is kinda cute," she gushed. I knew then that they were talking about boys.

"I think you should totally consider him," Paulina encouraged her. "As for me, I think Dash is okay. He asked me out once, and he's more than just a jock. What about you, Val?"

Valerie thought about it, and then she sighed. "I really don't know. Nobody caught my attention."

"What about Tucker?" I found myself blurting out.

"Tucker?" she asked, surprised that I was even talking. "As in, Tucker-the-techno-geek-Foley?"

"Yeah," I said, pushing my journal aside. "He likes you, and you know it. The least you can do is give him a chance to show you how sweet he is."

She was thoughtful for a moment. "Hmm, maybe. I don't know…"

I shrugged. "Your loss."

I put my journal away, got out my pajamas – a black t-shirt with purple skulls at the side and some purple pants – and went into the bathroom. I changed into my pjs, got out, and threw my clothes into my closet. Then I lied down on my bed, staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

I don't know how long I lied there, but when I turned back to look at Paulina, she was closing the cabin door. She went into the bathroom, and got out five minutes later wearing a long, pink, silk dress. She turned off the lights, and got into her bed.

"'Night," I couldn't help saying.

"'Night," she sighed. Just as I was about to doze off, I heard thunder.

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**A/N: **Thunder? Remind you of something? Yep, it's the thunderstorm. But not only will they just crash on the island, something else happens. Read the next chapter and find out! Please review!!


	2. The Crash

**Author's Note: **Okay, so here's the second chapter! Things might get a little interesting here!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Danny Phantom, but how I wish I did!

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_**Chapter two**_

_**The Crash**_

_Paulina's and Sam's cabin_

_Sam's POV_

I don't know if I really heard it. I mean, why would I hear thunder if there isn't a storm? It was ridiculous. Sam, just go back to sleep.

But just as my eyes were about to close, I heard thunder again. This time, I wasn't imagining. Because when I sat up in bed, Paulina had rolled over to see what the sound was about.

I wasted no time. I quickly got out of bed, headed to the door, and went outside. I walked over to the edge of the ship, and tried to see through the fog. Not much luck though; the fog was blinding me from anything I tried to look at outside the ship.

I spotted Danny a few feet away, and went over to him. He seemed to have been here for a long time, maybe he knew what was going on.

"Danny," I said when I was beside him. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I was just out here when I heard thunder, and it looks like there's a storm coming." He pointed to the sky, and there were clouds everywhere. The thunder got louder, and a few drops of rain started to fall.

"A thunder storm," I corrected him as the thunder was getting even louder by the minute. Right then, everyone had come out of their cabins. Paulina got out, wearing a robe over her nightgown. Star and Valerie got out of their cabin, followed by Dash, Kwan and Tucker. We all went over to the man in charge.

"Is everything okay?" Star asked worriedly.

"Yes," the man said reassuringly. "Everything is just fine. Go back to your cabins now, kids."

Hey, we are not kids. Eighteen isn't that young. Though, when everyone was about to go back to their cabins, the wind grew stronger, and more rain poured down on us.

"Captain," one of the crew said to him. "We need you in the control room."  
He went there, leaving us curious of what was happening. Danny and I went over to side-edge, trying to get a closer look of what's in front of us.

"I don't think they see where they're going from all the fog," Tucker explained. "I don't blame them; I can't see a thing either."

We all stood in silence, waiting for our eyes to adjust the fog and try to see through it. After a few minutes of silence, one of the crew screamed, "It's a wall!"

We weren't sure if he was right, but when the fog started disappearing a bit, and huge wall stood ahead of us.

"Darn," Kwan muttered under his breath. The crew quickly started moving, and everybody was shouting.

"Why can't they move the ship away?" Valerie asked.

"The waves," Tucker answered, looking down at the water. "And the storm, they're affecting the ship. The waves are too strong to move into, and the wind is pulling the ship directly in the direction of the wall. And the current is pulling the ship with it to the wall."

"Oh my God," Paulina gasped. "Oh my God. We're gonna die, aren't we?"

"No, don't panic," Dash comforted her. "We're gonna be okay. Right?"

We were all unsure. The ship was only a few inches away from the wall. I clutched in the metal edge, and closed my eyes. There was a huge _bang _as the ship hit the wall. We were all sent to the floor, tripping on our own legs. We all started to get up, and I was on my feet again. The wall hit the other side of the ship, and which sent me rolling to the edge. And the worst thing about that hit was…

Was that it sent me right off the edge, and into the freezing water.

"Sam!" I heard Danny shout from above. I tried to break the surface, but the waves pushed me under the water. And that's when the current got me. It felt as if the waves were fighting over me, lurking me deeper into the water. I had no idea which way the ship was, it was so dark here. I couldn't even tell which was the surface was.

The angry water was black in every direction, and there was no light to lead me upwards. I fought to keep my breath in, but my lungs were burning, begging for more oxygen. The first thought that hit me then was that maybe I was going to drown. I was drowning already.

"Sam!" Faded voices called from above. I could barely make the voices clear, due to the cold water in my ear. I was struggling to pull myself up, but the cold of the water was numbing my arms and legs. I didn't feel the buffeting so much as before. All I could feel was the dizziness now, a helpless spinning in the water. But I forced my arms to continue reaching, my legs to kick harder. But it seemed like a hopeless thing to do. It couldn't be doing any good, what was the point?

The current won at that moment, shoving me abruptly against something hard. I thought I was a rock, but it was too hard to see in the darkness. It hit me solidly across the chest, knocking the last breath out of me. Water flooded down my throat, choking and burning. Something like an iron bar seemed to be dragging me, pulling me deeper into the dark, to the ocean floor.

At that moment, my head broke the surface. The current wouldn't let up, slamming me into more rocks, right in my back, pushing the water out of my lungs. It came out with an amazing volume, absolute torrents pouring from my nose and mouth.

I tried to breathe, nut my throat was too full of water for me to catch a single breath.

"Breathe!" a voice, wild with anxiety ordered. I couldn't do as the voice said, though. The waterfall pouring from my mouth didn't stop for me to catch a single breath. The rock smacked into my back again, right between my shoulder blades, and another amount of water found its way outside my mouth.

"Breathe Sam! C'mon!" Danny begged. Black spots blocked my vision, getting bigger, blocking any entrance for any light.

It was then that I realized that the rock wasn't as cold as the water. It was Danny's hand, trying to beat the water from my lungs. And maybe the iron bar that dragged me from the sea was just Danny… my head whirled, the black spots covering everything.

"Sam?" Danny asked, his voice still tense, but not as wild as before. "Sammy, can you hear me?"

I felt a whooshing sound come in and out of my lungs. It was then that I realized that it was air, air filling up my lungs. I tried to open my eyes. It took me a minute, but then the blackness was replaced by the dark sky, flinging the freezing rain at me. "D-Danny?" I croaked.

Danny's face blocked the sky. "Oh, Sam," relief spread over his features. "Are you okay? Can you hear me? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"J-Just m-my throat," I stuttered, my mouth quivering from the cold. "W-where are we?" I looked around at the unfamiliar scene. Instead of the floor of the ship, I was lying on sand. Weird, grey-coloured sand. When I looked around me, I realized that there were palm trees, dead palm trees. At the corner, the ship was lying on the sand, looking totally dead.

"I don't know," Danny wasn't the only one there; Tucker was beside him, Valerie behind him. "The ship crashed here right after you fell. We have no idea what this place is."

I tried to sit up, Danny and Tucker helped me. I was on my feet, yet I was still wobbly. Danny caught me by my waist before I fell.

"Thanks," I choked out, my throat was still burning. "Where are the others?"

I saw them before anyone could answer me. Dash and Kwan were doing the best they can to get anything from the supplies on the ship, while Paulina and Star were helping setting them up.

"Where's the captain?" from the looks of everything, I had missed out on a lot. "Where's the crew?"

"They left," Valerie informed me. "Once you were coming near consciousness, they said they were going to explore the island."

"Island?" I asked, as if this was the last thing I thought this place was. And I was right, what kind of island would have grey sand?

"Yeah," Paulina said, coming towards me. "What do you think this place is, numb-skull?"

"Paulina," Valerie warned her. "I think she's still confused from the fall. I mean, she almost drowned."

"But she is right about that numb-skull," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "I must have hit something down there, because my head is killing me."

"Enough complaining," Star said. "And come give us a hand."

We all went to where the ship was now crashed. I was able to climb up the bars, and into the ship. Danny and Valerie climbed along with me.

"Okay," Danny said in his leader voice. "Search for food, water, and any tools that can help us."

Valerie went to the kitchen, Danny went to the control room, and I went to the supply cabin. I was expecting at least a knife or two, but I was shocked with what I found.

"Okay," I thought out loud. "I'm gonna need a really big box."

And I found one. A box, I mean. I stuffed in it as much as the box can carry, and as much as we might need.

"Sam?" I heard Danny call out. I pulled a lid over the box, carried it and dragged it with me. "Coming!" I yelled back.

I was at the edge of the ship, and Danny and Valerie had already found their way back on the island.

"Find anything?" Tucker asked me.

"Oh," I said, pulling down the box. "I've found something alright."

Danny helped me down, and I put the box on the sand. We all made a circle around the box, the others inspecting it curiously. The rain had stopped, and it was safe to bring them out.

"What's in it?" Star asked, putting her hands on her knees and bending over to inspect it. I lifted the lid away, and it hit the sand. They all gasped once they saw what was in the box.

Because in the box, there were a lot of types of guns.

"Where did you get those?" Dash asked, lifting a gun. "Do they fill up a ship with guns?"

I shrugged. "I think so. Oh, and I also found these."

I pulled out nine walky-talkies from the bottom of the box, and handed them over to the others, taking one for myself.

"You guys find anything?" I asked Valerie and Danny, and they both shook their head.

"They were all out of food," Valerie explained. "Maybe the food was lost when the ship hit the wall."

"There was nothing that can help us there," Danny said. "All I found in the control room were these."

He put his hand in his pocket, and pulled out two pocket knives, a lighter, four torches, and a map.

"Great, a map," Tucker said, taking the map away from him. "Now we can see where we are." He folded the map, and set it on the floor. We all sat down around him, looking at the map.

"Where are we here?" Kwan asked.

"Um," Tucker said, synchronizing the map. "Okay, so we took off from here," he pointed a finger at one of the spots. "And headed this way," he moved his finger across the map. But when he stopped, there was nothing my water on the map. "I don't understand, we were supposed to be here," he pointed at a place on the map. "But the nearest location here is Kentucky. This just doesn't make sense."

"How are we on an island," I asked. "That has no location on a map and no history?"

"We're gonna have to find that out when the others come," Star shivered. It was still cold, and all she had on was a red robe, covering her blue-and-white nightgown.

"Did you find any extra clothes?" I asked Valerie. I was getting pretty cold myself, since my t-shirt had thin sleeves.

"I don't think so," Valerie shook her head. "There were wood tiles everywhere in front of all the cabins; I wasn't able to find a way in."

"Great," Paulina said sarcastically. "No food, no water, and now no clothes. This is just great. What are we gonna do now?"

Danny looked thoughtful as he looked deeper into the woods. Then he said, "We explore the woods."

"What?" they all said at the same time, except me and Tucker. He was right; we had to search what was out there. And we also needed to get fruit.

"Try turning to Danny Phantom," I whispered in his ear. He looked at the others for a moment, then sighed and nodded.

"Goin' ghost," he muttered under his breath. But instead of the two rings surrounding him, and turning him into Phantom, nothing happened.

"What the?" he said when nothing happened. "I don't think I like this island."

"Okay," I muttered under my breath. "We're trapped on an island that has no location on a map and no history; has an affect on Danny's powers, making him not able to turn into Phantom. Oh, and also the grey sand." The only ones who heard me were Danny and Tucker, and they raised their eyebrow at me for my last remark.

"What?" I said innocently. "The sand is that color. See for yourself."

"So," Danny said, this time to all of us. "It's official. We go exploring this island."

It was then when we heard a growl. A really, really loud one coming from deep into the forest.

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**A/N: **I think you'd figure out from what the growl came out of. No? Then read the next chapter and find out! Let's see how I'll write next, it might be kinda hard. Reviews make me smile!~


	3. Into The Woods

**Author's Note: **Okay guys listen up, here's the third chapter; but the next chapter's only up if I get reviews, okay? So please, I already have th next chapters all typed up, but that depends on your reviews for me to post them. So please, no reviews, no updates.

**Disclaimer: **Danny Phantom does not belong to me.

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_**Chapter three**_

_**Into the woods**_

_First beach, lost island_

_Sam's POV_

I thought it was just my imagination. About the loud growl, I mean. But when I heard it again, everybody started searching around them, trying to figure out where it came from.

"I think it came from there," Star said, pointing to the middle of the jungle ahead of us. "What was that, anyway?"

"Well," Danny said. "There's only one way to find out."

"Wait, we're not gonna go in there, right?" Paulina asked in horror. "That could be a dinosaur in there."

We were quiet, and then we all started to laugh.

"Seriously, Paulina," I said, my voice a little hoarse from all the laughing. "Dinosaurs? This ain't Jurassic Park, dude."

She folded her arms across her chest stubbornly. "Okay, maybe not dinosaurs, but maybe that could be any other monster."

"Then we should go see," Valerie shrugged. "I mean, who knows what might be out there?"

"Yes, I agree," I agreed. "We can't just stay here. Even if the crew had gone there, they might get lost."

"Then how are we supposed to find our way back?" Kwan asked. "If we go, I mean."

He had a point. We could circle this island for days and not know it. But how can we memorize every path we go through to find our way back here? I kept on thinking about that case, but came up with absolutely nothing.

"Hey," Star said. "Why don't we put marks? I mean, mark the trees, and put arrows. Y'know, leave marks and signs that could lead us back here."

"That's not a bad idea, actually," Tucker said, giving it a thought. "But what are we gonna use to make the signs and the marks?"

Another thing to think about. Hmm, maybe… yeah, that would definitely work.

I wasted no time. I went over to the ship, climbed the bars, and landed on the floor.

"Sam?" Danny asked, climbing up with me. "Where are you going?"

I kept on walking. He followed me. I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, all I knew is that maybe if I could get into my room…

I found it. My room, I mean. Valerie was right; there was a chunk of wood in front of every cabin I came across. But when I recognized the door to my cabin, I tried to push the wood away.

"Help me out, Dan," I said, succeeding to push a few of the wood away. Danny was huge help. He was able to push away the heavy parts, thanks to all the ghost fights.

"What are you up to?" he asked, though he was still lifting the wood chunks.

"If I could just get my journal," I explained. "I might get a few of the photos or pieces of paper from it."

We pushed away the last chunk of wood. I almost tripped on a large piece of wood, but Danny caught me before I hit my head on the floor. The way he'd caught me could have been the way he'd catch me if we were dancing. Kind of romantic, actually. How is that we're trapped on a deserted island, and I'm thinking of romance? Yeah, that's how bad I've got it.

"Thanks," I said, pushing a thread of hair from my face. He set me back up to my feet, and blushed.

"'S okay," he said. We pushed away the last chunk of wood, and entered the cabin. It was more than messy; the beds were crashed against the wall. The closets – supposedly against the wall next to each bed – were faced down on the floor, and clothes were everywhere. I didn't even want to know what the bathroom looked like.

"What a mess," I sighed, trying to walk around the room. "I can't even see anything clearly."

"Does this help?" Danny asked, and then I saw a spot of light in front of me. When I turned back at him, he was holding a torch.

"Yeah, that does," I nodded. "Got any extra?"

He dug into his pocket, and got out another torch. He threw it over to me, and I caught it before it fell on the floor. I turned it on, and lighted the way I was going (At least trying to go, on account of the mess.) I recognized my suitcase, and ran over to it. All I found though were my camera, my glue, and my pencil case.

"Found anything?" I asked Danny. I turned my light over to him, and he was searching through Paulina's clothes. "What are you doing?"

"I'm getting some clothes," he explained. "After all, we did find a way in here, didn't we?"

"Danny," I said, a little uncomfortable. "I really don't think you should be searching through girls' clothes. Let a girl do it. Go find my journal."

I pushed him away, and stared getting as much clothes as I can. I used one of Paulina's big, smallish bags to carry the clothes. I got some for Paulina, Star and Valerie, but I will not wear anything like that. If she only had one black thing…

"Found it," Danny said all of a sudden. I looked up from the bag, and he was holding my purple journal. "It's a little messed up, but it'll do."

I got up, and took the journal from him. Thanks to the cover, the photos weren't that harmed.

"Okay," I said, searching for my handbag. "Now, we need something to carry all of this."

When I found my bag, I put in it my journal, the camera, and the cello tape. I used the torch to find my tool belt – yeah, I have a tool belt – and tied it around my waist. The reason I took it was because it had all the equipment we might need: a hammer, a screwdriver, and some nails. But the weirdest tools were the pick and the axe. I kid you not; I carry a pick and an axe. And I thanked myself for that, who knows what we could use them in?

"Sam, is that an axe?" Danny asked when he saw my tool belt. "And why are you carrying a pick with you?"

"Who knows?" I shrugged. "We might need it."

I directed the torch light in front of me, got my handbag, got the bag of clothes – I had stacked a few black in there – and got one of Paulina's belts, and tied them all together with the belt.

"What else do we need?" Danny asked, searching the room with the light. Nothing else seemed necessary.

"I think that's it," I sighed. He nodded, and we got out of the cabin. I was holding the belt tied to the bags, and I stuffed the torch into one of the pockets on my tool belt. We climbed back down to the shore, and went over to the others.

"What were you searching for?" Dash asked us once we came to them.

"Hey, is that my belt?" Paulina asked, wide-eyed as she pointed at the bags. "And is that my bag?"

"Yes," I replied. "I have a plan. You won't be able to worry about clothes Paulina, I got plenty in here." I lifted her back. "And I also have a journal full of photos; we could use that as the marks to use to lead us through the woods."

"Great," Kwan said sarcastically. "But we don't have anything to pin it to the trees."

"How dumb do you think I am?" I asked in disbelief. I gave Danny the bags, and got out the nails and the hammer from my tool belt. "I have these, and I also have some tape. And for anything interesting, I got my camera."

"Ooh, she gotcha there Kwany," Star told him flirtatiously. Before anyone could say anything, we heard another roar. Paulina was so shocked, that she jumped onto Dash, and held him tightly. Everything was quiet after that.

"Okay," Danny said, breaking the silence. "Let's go."

They all hesitantly followed me, Danny, Tucker and Valerie. We went through the trees, and then I got out my torch.

"Hey," Paulina complained. "How come she gets to have a torch?"

"Well," Danny said, making his way through some bushes. "There are only two more torches. So, let's split into two groups."

Before he could say anything else, Kwan interrupted by saying, "Boys group, and girls group."

"You sound like we're playing bowling or something," Tucker snorted.

"Just give me that," I said, taking one torch from Danny. I handed it over to Valerie instead of Paulina's waiting hand. "We'll use the walky-talkies to communicate. Girls go this way, boys, go that way." I signaled the boys to go south, and the girls to go east, if that was the right direction anyway. "Take some of these with you," I handed Danny and Tucker a few papers from my journal, and handed them a few pins and nails.

"Okay," Danny said, giving me the bags. I gave them over to Paulina, who didn't seem that annoyed to carry them. "We'll meet back at the beach in about fifteen minutes."

We took off in our separate ways. Once Danny and the others were out of sight, the others started talking.

"I think I might have a chance," Star disagreed with Paulina, whatever they were talking about. "Nothing can get in my way this time, or your way either. Nobody's here to steal them from us."

"Watcha guys talking about?" I asked as I pushed a tree branch out of my way, and held it for them to walk in front.

"Boys," Paulina shrugged, and I raised one of my eyebrows at her. "What?" she said defensively. "What else to you want us to talk about?"

"Good point actually," I shrugged. "So, who're you talking about?"

"Well," Star started. "I think I might have a chance with Kwan. A lot of girls back at Amity Park wanted to date him, but here, there're no more other girls than us. And I am the only one who wants to date him. As for Paulina, she thinks she might get Dash's attention."

"What's so interesting about Dash anyway?" I asked her. We were pushing through the bushes, trying to find anything. I used this moment to pin a picture of me, Danny and Tucker on one of the trees. Then we continued walking.

"Well," Paulina replied. "He's popular, he's a jock, and he is hot." "What is it with you guys and hot?" Valerie beat me there. "Sometimes the hottest guys are such jerks."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Shouldn't you get to know who you like better? And I mean better as in personality better."

"Who cares?" Paulina shrugged. "As long as he makes my reputation better, I like him."

Valerie and I rolled our eyes. I pinned another picture to a nearby tree.

"What about you, Sam?" Star suddenly asked.

"What about me, what?" I asked, a little confused.

"Who's on your mind?" she explained. "Who do you like? Who do you want to date?"

"Are you asking me to talk about boys?" I raised one of my eyebrows at her.

"Yeah, I guess we are," Valerie shrugged. "I mean, every girl has to talk about boys, don't they? Even Goths."

"Well, yeah, I suppose so," I shrugged. "But I really don't. I mean, my only friends are Tucker and Danny, you want me to talk about boys with them?"

"No, that would be awkward," Valerie giggled, taking a picture from me to pin in on a tree. But she stopped walking and got a better look at it. "Hey, what about him?"

I went over to her, and looked at the photo. It was a picture of me and Danny at his house. And guess who Valerie was pointing at?

"You're joking, right?" I raised my eyebrows at her. "I can't date Danny, he's my best friend. And besides, he doesn't even like me that way."

"So you're saying you like him that way?" Valerie snickered.

"Uh, no," I stuttered. "Why would I do that? Like I said, we're just friends."

"Okay, whatever you say," Star said as we continued walking. But they didn't seem convinced, though.

"Come on you guys," I tried to get that thought out of there head. "Why would you think – Paulina, look out where you're going."

"What?" she said, but before she could look in front of her, she went through a spider web.

"Ew, ew, ew!" she said, wiggling her arms in front of her, trying to get rid of it. "Spider!"

I quickly instructed her to stay still. She did as I said. There was a spider on her head, moving its way down her neck. She was about to shriek, but I quickly moved my hand, grabbed it, and threw it away.

"Ew, ew, ew," she squeaked. "I hate spiders."

"It's okay, I got it," I assured her. "Now, we were saying."

Before anyone of us could speak though, we heard another roar. This time, it was a louder one – a closer one.

Then we heard loud _thumps_, coming close from here. We looked up in front of us, and we couldn't believe what we saw. Our eyes widened at what was ahead of us.

Because Paulina was right. There was and actual, living, breathing dinosaur on this island.

Our breathing tightened at the giant creature. We were gasping, trying to keep our breath to ourselves. The dinosaur didn't seem to notice us; he just kept walking, real slow.

When Paulina's gasps were starting to turn into shrieks, we all turned to her, and shook our heads.

"Don't you dare scream," I muttered to her. It was so low that I thought she didn't hear me. The gasps continued, and she was about to scream. All of us quickly covered her mouth that only a tiny shriek was out. The dinosaur stopped in its tracks, sniffing. We hoped he hadn't heard us, and were relieved that he was about to go back into his tracks.

At least, that was until there was a noise coming from my walky-talky.

"Hey, Sam," Danny's voice came in. "We found nothing. You girls find anything?"

Right as he said that, the dinosaur turned his attention to us.

"Uh, Sam, you there?" he asked after we hadn't answered. We were all gasping from the fact that there was a dinosaur staring at us, sniffing. We removed our hands from Paulina's mouth.

That's when she screamed.

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**A/N: **So, here it goes guys! I know, I know, you're almost dying to see what'll happen, but as I said, reviews=updates! :) So please, review!


	4. Don't Scream, it's just a Dinosaur

**Author's Note: **Okay, so, here's the fourth chapter! What will happen here? Sorry if it's too short, but the next one's gonna have all the excitment!

**Disclaimer: **Do not chase me, i do not own Danny Phantom, just the plot.

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_**Chapter four**_

_**Don't scream, it's just a dinosaur  
**_

_Jungle, lost island_

_Sam's POV_

Oh, damn. It saw us. It heard us. It's staring at us, sniffing. It was hungry from the looks of it. Why did Danny have to choose this moment to turn on the walky-talky? And will they come help us? What could make them see this dinosaur? They were way south. This is the time of your life when your heart beat increases to a massive level, adrenalin flows through your veins, and you feel like you're gonna die. Because that's exactly what I felt.

Right then, Paulina screamed at the top of her lungs.

The dinosaur, among hearing Paulina's shriek, roared. We all screamed then and started turning away, running for our lives. This time, not only my walky-talky made the noise, but Valerie's and Paulina's started making the shuffling noise.

"Paulina?" Dash's voice came in. "What's going on? We thought we heard you scream."

We didn't have time to answer, the dinosaur was chasing us.

"What's going on there, Valerie?" Tucker's anxious voice came in. "Can you girls please tell us what's going on?"

We pulled behind a tree, trying to catch our breath. The dinosaur was still behind us, but he stopped to search for us. I pulled my walky-talky, and pressed the button.

"Danny," I panted. "We have to get out of here. There's –"

I was cut off by the dinosaur's roar as he turned his face to us.

"I thought they were extinct," Star said, staring wide-eyed at it.

"Not just yet, Star," Valerie gasped. Dino here roared again, and used his hand to snatch one of us. He was going to Paulina, but I quickly pushed her out of the way. Putting myself in danger instead.

"Sam!" they yelled. Dino carried me up, putting me face-to-face with him. My heart was beating so hard against my chest that I thought it was going to explode.

The walky-talky ruffled, and Danny said, "Sam? Is everything okay?"

I looked down then. But I didn't see the girls' horrified faces, no, I saw the guys. Their backs were to us, and they were wearing confused faces, staring at the walky-talkies.

"Danny," I said through my walky-talky, turning my attention to the dinosaur. "Look up."

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Turn the hell around and look the hell up!" I shrieked. That got them to turn around, but I wasn't able to see their expressions because the dinosaur roared at me.

I dropped my walky-talky and screamed. I couldn't help it. I was terrified. There was a _dinosaur _holding me, his mouth only inches away from me.

"Sam!" This time, it wasn't just from the girls, the guys had joined in. And from their tone, they were just as terrified as I was.

The dinosaur started moving, dragging me with him. I tried to reach my tool belt. Once I did, I got out the pick, and flung it onto its skin. The dinosaur roared in pain, and turned back to me. He swung me, and I felt as if I was on an endless rollercoaster.

He flung me to a thick tree, hitting me really heard on the head. The next thing, everything went black.

_Danny's POV_

I could barely believe what I was seeing. At first, I thought the girls were just screaming because they saw a spider or something. But when Sam shrieked in the phone for us to turn around and look up, I wanted to scream myself.

Because ahead of me and the other guys, a giant, real dinosaur was holding Sam. He roared at her, and she let out a scream.

"Sam!" we all yelled, and I heard the girls' voice coming from nearby.

We all sprung into action. First, we went deeper into the forest, trying to find the other girls. We didn't have to search long. We followed the pictures taped to the trees, which led us quickly to the girls. They were lying on the floor, staring horror-struck at the dinosaur.

"You girls okay?" Dash asked as we caught up with them. Paulina didn't answer him; she flung herself at him, and sobbed quietly into his chest.

"It was going to take me," she sobbed. "But Sam – she pushed me out of the way. She saved me."

"What are we gonna do?" Valerie whimpered. Honestly, I had no idea. This was a dinosaur we were talking about. But then, it hit me.

"Come on," I said, getting up. I pushed the trees aside, and started making my way to the beach. "We have to go back to the beach."

"The beach?" Tucker asked, confused. "But what about Sam?"

"Oh," I paused, turning around to look at them. "So you're planning on fighting a dinosaur with pieces of paper?"

"Good point," Dash sided with me – what an odd thing to say. "But why are we going back to the beach?"

They obviously didn't remember. They still weren't over the dinosaur shock.

"You'll see," I kept on going, and they followed me. It wasn't really hard to find it. The beach, I mean. We had pinned enough photos on the trees to find our way back.

Once we were at the beach, I quickly made my way over to the box Sam had gotten out earlier. I lifted the lid, and grinned. We were finally going to be able to use them.

"You want us to use the guns?" Star asked as they caught up with me. "We don't even know how to use them."

"Got any better ideas?" I asked, lifting one of the guns. "We are fighting against a dinosaur."

"Please don't remind me," Paulina whimpered, shuddering at the memory.

"Well," I sighed. "You're gonna have to. Because we're gonna fight it."

"Fight it as in guns, and BOOM?" Kwan asked.

"Yep," I said, handing him, Tucker and Dash guns. "You girls think you can handle it?"

Valerie hesitated, and then she got one of the rifles and reloaded it with bullets. Then smiled confidently, and said, "I know I can." I grinned, then handed Star and Paulina guns.

"You guys ready?" I asked them. Paulina and Star shared horrified glances. They looked down at the guns in their hands.

"I don't think I can do it," Paulina shook her head. "It's just not me. I'm not cut out for this."

"Me neither," Star sighed, handing me her gun. "I mean, I wanna live. And that's a dinosaur you're going after."

"Fine," I sighed, taking the gun from Paulina. "Suit yourself. But we're going, dinosaur or not. This is Sam we're talking about."

I grabbed a rifle out of the box, and reloaded it with as much bullets as it can hold. I grabbed the small box of bullets, and handed some to the others. Then I took an extra rifle for Sam, just in case.

"Ready?" I asked the others, handing Paulina and Star the photos and the pins.

"I was born ready," was all of their replies. But before we even had the chance to go anywhere, Dash got out some guns from the box and handed them over to Paulina and Star.

"Just in case," he explained. They didn't argue, they took the guns from him gratefully, and nodded.

"Now we're good to go," Dash announced. We all started towards the jungle.

"Be careful," we heard Paulina yell.

"It's a dinosaur," Tucker chuckled. "How more careful can we get?"

"Okay, just come back," Paulina shivered. It was starting to get cold. Freezing, actually. But none of us noticed, the adrenalin rush was hard to beat.

"Come on," I heard Star tell her. "Sam found us some clothes. Let's go change."

We entered the woods, and were on our way to save Sam.

"How are we supposed to find her?" Kwan asked when we reached the last place we saw Sam. Then, I noticed something.

"Easy," I told them, going over to it. "We find the dinosaur."

"How are we gonna do that?" Valerie asked, speeding in her pace to catch up with me. I kept on going, until I was standing in front of it.

"I think this might help," I got down, balanced my elbows on my knees, and scanned the huge dinosaur footprint in front of me. "Wow," was all the others could say.

"Yeah, wow," I stood up. "Let's see where the next one is."

We looked out front, and after a few feet of walking, we found another footprint.

"So all we do," Tucker announced. "is follow every dinosaur footprint until we find the dinosaur. And where the dinosaur is, we'll find Sam."

"Let's just hope he hasn't eaten her," Dash muttered. I have been trying to avoid the thought about us being too late. What if we are? What if Sam was already gone? I need her, I can't lose her. It would be hell without her, and everything would suck. Please don't let us be too late. I flinched away from the thought, and just kept on following the footprints.

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**A/N: **Okay, I know it's another To Be Continued ending, but I did it for the longness of the other chapter! Anyway, if you happen to read this story, and if by a chance you liked it, then please review!


	5. Fighting with a Dinosaur

**Author's Note: **Hey everybody! So of course you're wondering what happened in this chapter, and the title says it all! But I would have been confused at how they're gonna fight a dinosaur. That's creepy. I never wanna be in their shoes! lol! Anyway, I would really be happy if I got any reviews, I'm running low on these. The next chapter might take a while, though, I still haven't started it yet. But if you want me to type faster, then please leave a review!

**Disclaimer: **Butch Hartman owns Danny Phantom, as I have said before.

* * *

_**Chapter five**_

_**Fighting with a Dinosaur**_

_Top Mountain, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

I let out a groan. I was having a killer headache. Plus, I didn't know where I was, why I was here, and how I got here. And I didn't even know who – or rather what – brought me here – wherever here was.

I tried to move my hand, and feel around for anything. I felt something soft, then something cold, then something muddy, and then something wooden. I tried to open my eyes and look around me. When I lifted my head up, I felt a big stab of pain coming from the back of my head. That must be the reason to why I passed out.

But the real thing that was bugging me was what brought me here. And I guess the big, close growl was the answer that got everything flooding back to me. And I didn't like it one bit.

I quickly tried to get up, ignoring the pain that shot up my arms in doing so. I got up, and tried to clear the wood chunks out of my hair. But stopped when I heard loud breathing coming from behind me. When I turned around, my eyes widened. The dinosaur was sleeping on the ground.

I looked around me, and saw skeletons almost lying everywhere. You know what my first thought was among seeing this?

I was so dead. This time literally.

I started backing away, as silently as I could. Well, if you call my ragged breaths silent.

I was doing a good job, until I accidently stepped on a skull, breaking in the process. The sharp edges pained me, but I was able to ignore them. That's when the dinosaur's eyes snapped open.

"Oh, crap," I muttered. The dinosaur turned his attention to me, and started getting up.

"Look Dino," I tried talking some sense into him. What? I was panicking, and it was the first thing that crossed my mind. "We don't need to hurt each other. I'm just a girl; a vegetarian type of girl. I don't have the meat you'd want to eat, trust me."

He looked at me, but not with the murderous look he was giving me earlier. This time, he looked as if he were confused or something.

"Okay," I was starting to calm down. Well, a little. "See? We can understand each other. Now, can you please let me go like a good little dinosaur?" he didn't attack; he just stood there, staring.

"Okay, thanks buddy," before I was able to move, he lowered his head down at me. It was like he was waiting for me to touch him, as if shaking his hand. I held my hand in front of me. I was about to touch him with my palm, when his expression turned back murderous, and he flung himself at me.

I leaped out of the way just in time. His teeth, instead of digging into me, sunk into the mud. I quickly got up from where I fell, and started running. He was faster than me, of course, but I got a head start.

"Crap," I panted when I saw him running after me. I picked up my speed, and pushed my feet faster. He growled, as if telling me he would win eventually.

I quickly turned to the right, and he stumbled in his steps at the sudden change of direction.

"Why me?" I complained as I was running. "Why me?"

I found the opportunity to lose him then. I noticed a long branch.

I quickly went over to it, and held it high from the end of it. When the dinosaur caught up, he tripped over the branch, fell on the floor, letting out a cry of pain.

I quickly ran away from him. I was in look at the moment. Reason number one: he didn't get up immediately and try to follow me. And reason number two: I found a big log-shaped wooden wall nearby. I quickly ran to it, and hid behind it.

I tried to catch my breath. I tilted my head to the side to see the dinosaur, and I felt something grab me. But before I had the chance to scream, I felt something cover my mouth, and pull me to the other direction, out of the dinosaur's sight.

I didn't scream when I saw who it was, though.

"Danny," I let it out in a whisper, I was out of breath. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he muttered. "I'm here to save you."

"Great," I panted. "Now what about the really big dinosaur with the really big teeth?"

Right at that moment, the wall was gone. We looked up, and the dinosaur was carrying the wood in his mouth.

"May I make a suggestion?" Danny asked, not breathing as I wasn't. I was too terrified to talk, but I did anyway. "Yeah?"

He looked over at me. "Run." Now, I looked over at him. "How about scream?"

"I could go with both," he shrugged. The next second, we were on our feet, running for our lives.

"Hurry!" Danny yelled to no one. Or at least I thought to no one. Danny pulled my arm, and dragged me to the left.

"Now!" he yelled. And the next thing, rocks were thrown at the dinosaur.

"Hey, ugly," Tucker yelled at Dino. "You wanna piece of me?"

He turned his attention to Tucker. He was just about to lunge at Tucker, when more rocks were thrown at him from the other direction.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I saw Valerie. Dino was about to turn in her direction, when more rocks were thrown at him.

"Here Dino," Dash and Kwan called for him. They made him kissy sounds as if he were a dog. Okay, I would go for a really big dog.

"What the…?" I turned to Danny, and he handed me, of all things, a rifle. Then he grinned. "We have a plan," he explained. "They'll distract him while we sneak up to him and shoot the closest way to his heart."

"One problem: where is a heart in a dinosaur?" I couldn't help pointing out. "We never took that in biology, and we never will."

"Right there," he answered, though, pointing at a place between the dinosaur's arms.

"Okay," I steadied myself. My heart was slamming against my chest, and I couldn't feel my pulse in my ears anymore because of all the adrenalin. This was worse than any ghost fights with Danny. Way worse.

"C'mon," he took my hand, and we started running towards the beast. "Aim it at his heart!" Tucker demanded from us. He threw more rocks at the dinosaur.

I tried. I aimed the rifle at his chest, and pulled the trigger. But as the dinosaur turned to Valerie, the bullet ended up hitting him in his arm. He cried out in pain, and turned to us.

"Damn it," Danny and I said at the same time. Dino flung his arm at us, and hit Danny hard on his chest. Dino sent Danny crashing into one of the trees.

"Danny!" I yelled. I quickly aimed the rifle at Dino, and fired. The bullet hit him near his eyes, and he ignored Danny, who was now unconscious. Dino turned back to me, and looked murderous. Oh, boy.

"Here goes nothing," I took a deep breath. I aimed the rifle at his chest, and pulled the trigger. And it hit him right where we wanted. I shot a few more bullets, making sure I finished him off. And how I wish I hadn't.

Because the next thing, Dino was falling. Falling down on me. I didn't have a chance to react. He was about to land at me, when something was thrown at me, knocking me out of the way. When I opened my eyes, I was clutching on Danny from fear. I have never been scared like that in my entire life.

Danny was lying over me, breathing heavily. "You okay?" he panted. I lifted my hand to remove a thread of hair out of my face, when a really big stab of pain shot up my shoulder. I let out a gasp of pain.

Danny got off me, and sat beside me. I sat up, and looked at my left shoulder. And I was right to get huge pain, because there was a small wooden stick sticking from the back of my shoulder and coming out of the front. Ouch.

"Oh my God," Valerie gasped when she got near me. "Are you okay? Does that hurt?" Duh, of course it hurts.

"Ye-ouch," Dash and Kwan said together. "That's gotta hurt."

"It does," I muttered. I tried to hold the stick, and pull it out. But it just hurt too much. "What now? I can't get it out."

"Do we have a First-Aid kit back at the beach?" Tucker asked. Valerie nodded. "Yeah, I think so. Why?"

"Well, we can't let her bite on a leaf," he explained. "There might be something there that can help us."

"Yeah, come on," Danny took my hand, and helped me get up. But once I was on my feet, I felt pain come from my foot. I hopped on my painless foot. "Ow, ow."

"What?" they asked in concern. I looked down at my foot. It had something sharp and similar to glass covering it. And then I remembered the skeletons and the skull I pressed on. I must have been too busy running for my life to notice anything.

"My foot," I explained to them, sitting down on a rock. "I stepped on something sharp when I was sneaking away from the dinosaur. And I guess I was too preoccupied with running for my life to notice anything."

"Now we really need to go back to the beach," Tucker said, examining my foot and arm. "These might be serious."

I sighed. I tried to get up, but almost fell. Danny and Valerie quickly helped me. Danny pulled my uninjured arm over his shoulder, and put his hand around my waist to balance me. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked…

This felt as if it were endless. My foot was burning, my arm has already gone one fire, and my head was killing me. But we finally came across a familiar path. Danny flashed his flashlight at the trees, and we saw the pictures we hung earlier.

"Finally," I sighed when I saw some moonlight. Dash and Kwan pushed the trees aside, and we were back on the beach. Paulina and Star sat near the ship. They were sitting on logs, and they had lighted a fire. Wow, so much for girlie girls.

Dash and Kwan raced to the ship, going to get a First-Aid kit I think. When Paulina and Star saw them, they turned to us, and then gasped.

"Oh my God," Star said, she and Paulina running towards us. "Sam, are you okay?"

"Well," Danny took me over to the logs, and set me down on them. "If you call a girl who had just been kidnapped by a dinosaur, had to fight a dinosaur, has a stick coming out of her shoulder and skull blades coming out of her foot okay, then yeah."

"Ouch," Paulina muttered, sitting down next to me on the other side. "How are you gonna get this out?" she gestured toward the stick. I sighed, and shook my head. "I have no idea. But whatever I do, it's gonna be painful. But let's do my foot first."

The others came with the First-Aid kit.

"Okay, the less painful first," Valerie said. She sat down on her knees on the sand, and got up my foot. "I don't think this'll hurt a lot." She got out a sharp, glass-shaped skull piece out of my foot. It didn't hurt that much, though.

"So, what did you guys do?" I asked Paulina and Star, trying to make out a conversation to get my mind off the pain. "You seem to have done a lot."

"Well, we just collected wood and started a fire," Paulina shrugged. "Then we found these logs, so we got them here as chairs or something." When I looked back at Valerie, she had pulled a lot of pieces out of my foot. I hadn't realized that much pieces got into my foot.

"Done," Valerie announced after a few seconds. "Now all we have to do is just wrap a bandage around it." she took a bandage out of the First-Aid kit bag, and started wrapping it around my foot. She was amazing. It was like she did it on daily bases.

Once she was done, we all looked at her in amazement.

"That was amazing," I commented her. "How'd you learn to do that?" All she did was shrug.

I sighed. "Now, what about this?" I pointed over to the stick.

Tucker said, "We're gonna have to pull it out of her shoulder. And it might be painful. So just in case, here's a piece of cloth for you to bite on." He handed me a clean piece of cloth.

"Okay," I took a deep breath. "It's gonna come out one way or another."

Tucker pushed Paulina aside, and sat next to me. I put the piece of cloth in my mouth, and got ready for the pain.

"Just clutch my hand whenever it hurts, okay?" Danny whispered to me, slipping his hand into mine. I felt a little comfortable after that.

"You ready?" Tucker asked. I shook my head, but he went on and did it anyway. I felt Tucker grab the stick. But the thing that told me that he was pulling it was when it really, really hurt. I bit hard into the piece of cloth, and clutched Danny's hand. With every pull, it got even more painful.

After what seemed like an eternity, the huge pain was gone. It was just ordinary pain now. I stopped clutching on Danny's hand, and let out a sigh; which sent the piece of cloth out of my mouth.

"Let's never do that again," I informed him. He smiled, and showed me the stick. It was ruined, covered with blood in every corner.

"Is that meat?" Dash asked, narrowing his eyes at it.

"Don't worry," Tucker couldn't help chuckling a little. "It wasn't that deep. Now, does it hurt Sam?"

"Uh, yeah," I answered him. It still hurt, really bad. But not as bad as when Tucker was pulling it out. He got up, held the piece of cloth, and went to the shore. He washed the cloth with the water, and got back to me.

"Okay," he said, handing the cloth to Danny. "Danny, I need you to wipe the injury with this piece of cloth. Keep it clean. And when you're done, wrap a bandage around it."

Danny nodded, got up, and sat on the side with the wound. He got the piece of cloth, and started moving it around the cut.

"Thanks," I told him as he moved around the cloth. He smiled, and I smiled back.

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**A/N: **Okay, so here's a sneak peek at what'll happen next:

So, it starts with a little fluff, then there's a hint of action, then it ends with a little fluff. D/S fluff of course!

Anyway, that's it for now! So please review!


	6. The First Night Together

**Author's Note: **Okay, I know it took a little too much time to post this, but I had exams. Anyway, some of you readers say that Sam gets hurt a little too much, that, I agree with you. But the whole reason is because of what lies ahead. The things they're going through now is kinda like practice for what's coming ahead, and trust me, there's a lot coming ahead!

I only got one more thing to say: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

**Disclaimer: **Sadly, I don't own Danny Phantom, I just own the plot.

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_**Chapter six**_

_**The First Night Together**_

_First Beach, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

I waited patiently as Danny kept on rubbing the cloth around my shoulder. Is it just me, or am I starting to turn into a total wimp? I mean, I never got that panicked or afraid before. I have never thought like that when dealing with any beast. But I guess I can let that slip because the beast we're dealing with was _a dinosaur. _And is it just me or is Danny paying too much attention to me? Not that I didn't like it; in fact, the only bright side on this island is that Danny is actually seeing me.

But I also hate this place for a whole lot of reasons. One, it's a deserted island, no food, no water, nothing. Two, it has some kind of affect on Danny's powers, making him unable to use them when really needed. Three, I've already been seriously injured almost three times here. And I'm also not loving the dinosaurs either.

Have I mentioned that I was starving? If you give me meat or chicken right now, I'd gladly eat it. Yes, that's how starved I was. I also wouldn't mind ripping off that dinosaur's skin and tasting his meat. I know that seems like it's not me, but come on, it was a dinosaur! And I think Danny had the right to give me a rifle; I would have taken his if he hadn't brought me one.

I wasn't sure about what Tucker had said, though. About the injury, I mean. I know I'm not a doctor, but I think that would have been a bad move to pull out the stick. But I guess it wasn't too deep to be that serious; and Tucker had a point by making someone rub the piece of cloth on the injury to stop the bleeding. And it was also working.

"Wow, the bleeding stopped," I muttered, looking at my shoulder. Danny had been rubbing it for a while now, and it surprisingly stopped oozing out the blood.

"Yeah," Danny agreed. He stopped rubbing my shoulder, and started wrapping a bandage around my arm.

"Thanks," I thanked him when he was done. "No problem," he simply said. I pulled the tool belt from around my waist, and threw it near us on the sand.

After a moment of silence, I said, "Do you think they ran over it?"

Danny raised one of his eyebrows. "Who ran over what?"

"The crew," I explained. "You guys said that the captain and the crew took off through the woods once we crashed here. And we've been here for, like, I don't know, four hours?"

"It's hard to tell what time it is," he sighed. "When we left each other back on the boat it was almost six or something. Maybe you slept – or at least tried to sleep – after that with a while. So maybe we could say that now it's one or two in the morning."

"Well," I muttered. "That must mean that the crew is probably on the other side of the island. At least, that is if they haven't found one of the dinosaurs. Well, if there is more than one dinosaur on this island."

"How are they still alive anyway?" Danny asked. "The dinosaurs, I mean. Last time I checked, they were extinct."

"I guess that's just another problem with the island," I shrugged. "The first problem is that it keeps you from turning Phantom. And the second, most recent one is that it has dinosaurs."

"Forgot your grey sand," he joked. I rolled my eyes, and elbowed him in the ribs.

I sighed. "We still need to search for them, y'know."

"I know," he agreed. "But there is no way we are going now, or tomorrow. I think we need to make a schedule or something."

Star, among hearing this, said, "I think a schedule's a pretty good idea. We could split into groups. A group that gets food, a group that gets wood, yadda yadda yadda, you get the idea."

"Yeah," Dash joined in. "We could make time schedules too. That would be a great idea."

Paulina brightened at that. "Ooh, just like the series _Flight 29 Down_. They found a place to dig for water, built things from natural resources. Y'know, these kinds of survival stuff."

"Yeah, but here we have an extra problem," Valerie pointed out. "In the show, they don't have dinosaurs on that island. But here, we do."

"Whoever put those rifles and guns in the ship," Kwan said. "I owe him bid time. He is our savor!"

"We'll do that, let me get my PDA," Tucker said automatically; but once he remembered he lost his PDA, he pouted. "Oh right, no signal, no PDA, no nothing."

"Sucks, huh?" I sighed. I turned back to Danny, and the others were already deep in their own conversations. "Ugh, I so need a shower." I said, inspecting myself. I had dirt covered all over me. It was grossing me out.

"You always have the sea," he gestured over at the water. I said, "You know that's not what I meant. I mean a real shower; the one with soft, clean water, shampoo, and conditioner. And besides, the salt water starts doing stuff to my hair if not washed with clear water after that."

"So, we're stuck on a deserted island and all you think about is taking a shower?" He raised one of his eyebrows at me. "And you're starting to worry about your hair all of a sudden?"

"Whoa, dude, it just gets messy. And not the kind of messy I like. But its not that big of a deal, I mean, I'm not Paulina."

"Hey!" Paulina frowned among hearing her name. "I'm not that self-conscious to worry about something like that now!"

"Just let it go, let it go," Star rolled her eyes at her.

"What I wanna find out is how we're gonna find our way back home," Danny told me. "I mean, we can't just repair the ship and skedaddle out of here."

"Well," I started some movies about survival that I've watched before. "They must have known that the ship is missing, so I think they're gonna send out search groups. Whether in helicopters or search boats; if they find the ship, they'll find us."

"You watch a lot of movies," Danny concluded from what I said. I laughed. Even on a deserted island, he can still have his sense of humor. I turned my attention back at the others, and noticed that Valerie was, I don't know, sowing something.

"Valerie," I asked. "What are you doing?"

"Well," she started explaining. "When I was little, my grandma used to teach me how to do homemade stuff. She taught me how to make a basket with vines and stuff. So that's what I'm doing. Problem is, these vines aren't strong enough."

"What if you, I don't know, braid them?" I suggested.

"Are you kidding?" Paulina said. "I've been braiding everything since I was six. And so did Star."

"Okay," Valerie gave them three vines. "Show me what you can do, girls."

Paulina and Star wasted no time. Each one held the three vines on the opposite sides, and started braiding. They were done in half a minute. Boy they were fast.

"Good, these are tighter," Valerie stretched the vines, and they held tight. She started folding them together, one through the other, making strange shapes. It was only then when I realized that Kwan and Dash were gone, because they were walking towards us, each one of them carrying really big leaves. They dumped the leaves next to Valerie, and sat down.

"What are the leaves for?" Danny asked as Valerie took one of them.

"Well," she started. "I need something to hold this together, and I think I could make the leaves flat enough to be the bottom. Just like with my grandmother, except that it was easier and for a much simpler reason with her."

We sighed. I watched Valerie for a while as she, Paulina and Star tied the braided vines together. When I got bored, I turned back to Danny.

"I guess first thing tomorrow morning we search for food," I sighed, starting a conversation. "And this time, we take the guns as a precaution."

"I thought you were Ultra-recyclo vegetarian," Danny raised his eyebrow. "I thought you didn't eat or kill anything that has a face."

"Well, if that's on the list, then I'm gonna have to add, 'Unless it's a dinosaur'," I joked, and he chuckled. When I looked back at Valerie, she was done with the basket.

"Well, that was easy," she said, amazed at her work. Then she yawned. "I guess I'm gonna make more once I get the energy to it." She sunk down and sat on the sand, and rested her head on the log.

"I think I'm gonna hit the sack too," Paulina said, a little stupidly. "Wait, there's no sack here, only this stupid log." She folded her arms across her chest, and sank down on the sand and rested her back on the log.

"Let's just sleep," Star sighed. We all sat on the sand, and rested our backs on the log. I let out a yawn.

"Good night, Sammy," Danny whispered in my ear, and I couldn't help blushing.

"Could you lovebirds stop flirting and go to sleep?" Dash mumbled, almost asleep.

"We are not lovebirds," Danny and I automatically said, though we were drifting towards unconsciousness.

***

I woke up when I felt something land on my face. My eyes fluttered open, and I realized that it was raining. But it was pretty hard to see from the position I was sitting in.

Danny had his arm around me, and I was resting my head on his chest. As much as I would love to stay in this position, I had to get up. I carefully wiggled out of Danny's arms, careful not to wake him.

When I stood up, I went over to the clothes-bag. I searched through it for anything black, but all I found was a black bikini. I got out the bikini, and rested with a white shirt and jeans shorts.

I went into the trees, covered myself with some leaves that were hanging out. The rain still poured down. I was still doing this. I was still gonna take a shower in this water. Well, it's better than salt water.

I quickly undressed from my dirty t-shirt and pants, and threw them somewhere near me. I let the rain pour down on me, making them reach every place they can.

The rain started cooling down. I rested with the really short shower I had, and threw on the bikini. I put on the jeans shorts – the really short shorts – and the shirt. And since it was Paulina's, there was only one button in the middle. Well, it was a good thing I was wearing the bikini.

I picked up the dirty clothes, and went to get the torch. I went over to the log Danny was still sleeping on, and got my tool belt. I got out the torch, and started walking towards the water.

I started cleaning the dirt off of the pants, waving the torch over it when I couldn't see. The t-shirt was a bit hard to wash in the dark, since it was black like the light here. After a lot of failed attempts to try to wash it, I finally got the dirt off of it.

"Finally," I sighed. I got up, and went over to the ship. "Maybe people might see the ship if they were passing by. I just hope that my parents pick this time to harass-check on me."

I sighed, and went back to the camp place, and sat next to Danny. I rested my head on his chest, liking the feeling of it. My eyes almost closed, when I heard a nearby growl.

I quietly got up, and got a gun from the box. I got my torch, and pointed it and then gun in front of me. I took slow walks towards the trees. I heard the growl again.

"What the…?" I started. I got in through the leaves, and walked towards the noise. Out of the corner of my eye, I got a glimpse of something moving. I whirled around and pointed the gun at it. I lifted the torch, and tried to see what it was. When the light rested on its eyes, I gasped.

It was a large scorpion. And I mean a really large scorpion. What is wrong with this island? I raised my gun at hit, and tightened my finger on the trigger.

"What are you?" I whispered. Even though it looked terrifying, it seemed like it didn't want to do any harm. I walked closer to it, steadying my gun, just in case. I bent down, and waved the light at it. Yep, it was a giant scorpion alright.

"Great. First dinosaurs and now giant scorpions," I shook my head. I put the gun in my pocket, and lifted my hand to touch it. But when my fingers almost touched it, it waved its claws at me. I leaped out of the way, and raised my gun at it.

"Okay, behave and nobody will get hurt," I said. It still moved toward me, and I had a gut feeling telling me to pull the trigger. It moved closer to me, and I felt that it was going to attack.

I pulled the trigger just in time. It was about to lunge, but I sent a bullet into it. I shot it one more time just to make sure it's dead for sure.

"Okay, I gotta make a change to the list," I muttered to myself. "Never gonna attack anything unless it's a dinosaur or a giant scorpion. Can this island get any weirder?"

I walked closer to the now dead scorpion. I waved the torch over it, and recognized some kind of symbol on its head. It looked a little like the triquetra circle. (**A/N: **If you ever watched Charmed, than its symbol is called the triquetra circle; that's the symbol Sam found on Scorpio here.)

"Weird," I muttered. I touched the symbol, and for a second, I thought it glowed. I backed away from it. "Maybe if I could cut it out."

I them remembered that Danny had brought a pocket knife. I went back to the camp, and went over to Danny. _Where did he put that knife? _I thought. I quietly sat down next to him. I saw something tingle from his pocket. I quietly put my hand in his jacket pocket, and tried to get out the knife.

But as soon as it was half way out, Danny's arm moved from the top of the log and landed on me, crushed me into his chest.

"Why did you pick now to do this?" I mumbled against him. _As much I'd like to stay in this position, I can't right now._ I got the knife out of his pocket, and started wiggling from underneath his arm, careful not to wake him. When I was away from him, his arm fell numbly on him.

I waited to see if he's wake, but he rolled on his side, and I guess he was still asleep.

I got up, and went back to where I left Scorpio. When I lifted away the leaves, expecting to find the scorpion, I gasped. He was gone. And I mean gone. He was nowhere.

"What the hell?" I moved to where it he had been lying. The only proof I had that he had been there was the one single drop of blood on one of the leaves. "Damnit, I lost him."

I heard something move from behind me. I put away the knife, and held the gun. I slowly started turning around. I held my gun in front me, and waved the torch to see who it was.

"What are you doing here?" I asked when I recognized who it was.

"I think the question is," Danny said. "What are you doing awake?"

"I asked you first," I argued, putting the gun back into my tool belt. "Weren't you asleep almost about a second ago?"

"Well, no," he said. "And by the way, can I have the knife back?"

I blushed, remembering the position I was in. I dug into my tool belt, and got out the knife. I handed it over to him.

"Now," he said, putting the knife back into his jacket pocket. "Can you please tell me what you're doing out here? There might have been another one of these creatures."

"Actually," I said, moving back to the beach. "There was one of those creatures. This time, it was a giant scorpion. The reason I wanted your knife was because there was a symbol drawn on its head, and I thought it might be useful. But when I got back here, it was gone."

"First dinosaurs and now giant scorpions?" Danny raised one of his eyebrows.

"That's exactly what I said," I told him as we went back to the beach. We went over to the shore, and sat down near the water. "This island cannot get any weirder."

"Yeah," Danny agreed with me. "We really have to search this island, see what the hell's wrong with it."

I nodded. But before I was able to say anything, I caught site of some light. I looked ahead of me, and the sun was staring to rise.

"Wow," Danny and I said awe. "It's so beautiful," I commented. I looked at the sun as it started to rise.

"Sam, look at this," Danny said. He was looking down at the sand. When I looked down, I realized that when the sun hit the sand's surface, its color changed. Instead of grey, it turned into shiny gold.

"What?" I muttered. The sun was halfway up, and the sand gained its rich gold color, when it was light silver just a few moments ago.

"What is this place?" Danny and I said together, staring as the sand turned from grey/silver into rich gold.

* * *

**A/N: **So? What did ya think? It took 7 pages on Microsoft Word. Anyway, I think you're wondering what really is wrong with the island itself. No spoilers, you're just gonna have to wait and see. Two more things: Merry Christmas (Though since I'm a Muslim I don't celebrate it)/ Happy New Year!!

And: PLEASE REVIEW!


	7. Strange Discoveries

Chapter 7

Strange Discoveries

_The First Beach, Lost Island_

_General POV_

"Aaaaaaaahhh!" Paulina shrieked, waking up everybody else. "SNAKE!"

"Snake? WHERE?" Dash jumped from behind her, hiding behind the log they were resting on.

"Paulina," Valerie sighed, getting up and heading towards the 'snake'. Picking it up, she said, "it's just driftwood," – she picked up what seemed to be a raison on it – "Wait, what would a raison be doing on driftwood?" – Her smile disappears – "But why does it have LEGS?" she dropped the driftwood, looking highly disgusted.

"Ugh, thanks a lot Paulina," Tucker grumbled, straightening up. "I was inches away from kissing Selena Gomez!"

"First," Paulina said, calm now, slowly getting up. "Suck it up, loser. And second, you wish."

"Dash, you okay?" Kwan asked when Dash came out of his hiding place.

"Real macho, Dash," Tucker said, snorting, clearly enjoying this moment. "_Help! Snake!_" He said, imitating a lame expression of Dash's voice. Dash was about to get up to pound him silly, when Star came between them, obviously annoyed.

"Just stop," Star said, really ticked off. "You two are like a new annoying married couple fighting over a colour to paint a room."

Growling, Dash backed away, looking extremely annoyed.

"Speaking of annoying couples," Valerie said, looking around. "Where're Danny and Sam?"

As if on cue, they all suddenly heard a gun shot. Sharing glances, they quickly ran towards the sound. They ran into the woods, and found Danny holding a rifle, which was pointed at a now dead giant scorpion.

Paulina opened her mouth to scream, but Kwan covered her mouth with his hand to stop her from doing so.

"Wow," Valerie said, after a moment of shock.

"Wow is a good way to go," Danny said, putting away the rifle. "Sam and I found tons of these the past few hours."

"Speaking of Sam," Tucker said. "Where is she?"

Danny's eyes widened, and quickly ran towards a great chunk of wood. He started carrying them away, and started helping a groaning Sam get out from under it.

_Sam's POV_

Danny helped me get out from under the stupid chunk of wood that fell from the tree the scorpion jumped out of. We were just walking back towards camp, when BAM! Mutt-loads of wood crashed on me. And it hurt too, for whoever's concerned.

"Ow," I groaned, touching my head to see whether it's bleeding or not. And for my luck, it was a not.

"What happened?" Tucker asked, helping Danny help me stand up straight. Which seemed sort of impossible considering the sudden shooting pain.

"Okay, now I really hate wood," I muttered, trying hard to straighten my back.

"Here, let me help you," Danny offered. He held on of my shoulders, straightening it, then with straightening my back, he did the same with the other shoulder, making me stand up perfectly.

"Wow, Danny," I said, smiling in surprise. "Thanks."

"No problem," he said, the most gorgeous smile spreading across his face.

"Well," Tucker said, getting between them. "if you two are done being adorable, maybe you can explain to us where the hell you were."

"Long story," Danny said shortly.

"But before we say anything else," I interrupted. "I need to get back to camp. There's something in my sock. And I think it's moving."

I held my hair firmly, allowing the trickles of water fall to my feet. After going through the woods with Danny, trying to find out what the hell this island is, I guess I deserved a little shower – even if I took it in freezing sea water.

Now, I was standing barefoot on the sand – which was now regular sand colour – letting the waves crash gently against my toes.

I was now wearing one of my outfits that I found on the ship earlier. They consist of a blue t-shirt with the word _dream _on it, and black knee-length shorts.

You're probably wondering where Danny and I had gone, and why. Well, for starters, it started when the sand turned from grey to gold. I mean, sand can't do that, It's just, sand. And it probably has something to do with that giant scorpion I ran into before the sand incident. The weird thing about that was that there was this weird triquetra circle shape thingie on its head.

I actually drew that thing on a leaf, which is now in my pocket. It may come in handy later.

As I let loose of my hair – that had grown very long until it reached my chest in the past few months – I started going back to the camp's firewood place where everybody but Dash and Kwan – whom went in the woods to find food – were talking.

I sat down next to Valerie, taking the leave out of my pocket and inspecting the shape carefully.

"Whatcha got there, Sam?" Valerie asked, leaning closer to me to look over at the leaf.

"Well," I started. "That giant scorpion you guys saw a few minutes ago, well, it had this triquetra circle shape on it. I tried to get that shape off its head, but I couldn't. So, I drew this one; thought maybe it could come in handy lately."

"What do you think it resembles?" Valerie asked, taking the leaf from me, getting a better look.

I shrugged. But I still thought that it had to do with the strange sand-colour-turning-thing. Hey, don't give me that look, I know I should've let the sand issue go, but when something is bugging me, it just ain't gonna leave easily.

I lifted my head when I heard gasping. Kwan and Dash had come back, carrying all sorts of fruit; coconut, mango, banana, yadda yadda yadda. They let it fall on the sand, as they did after that from exhaustion.

"Must… Have…Water," Dash gasped, breathing heavily. At this rate, it's hard to believe the guy's a quarter-back football player. It's just like that scene in _Kung Fu Panda_; Po, the Panda, after taking two steps on the stairs; it's all, "Almost there…"

But at the mention of water, I realized my throat was craving for it too.

"How are we supposed to get that?" Star asked, a bored look on her face. "It's either sea water, or no water at all. And I hardly think an island with dinosaurs and giant scorpions has a well."

"Speaking of wells," Paulina said, probably launching her 'Back-When-I-Was-In-Spain' stories again. "Did I ever tell the story where my cousin Mary pushed me into a well?"

We all groaned.

"Why didn't anyone just leave you there?" I said, irritated. She had been rambling on with those stories for about an hour now. After hearing my comment, she pouted in a childish way, folding her arms across her chest in annoyance.

After a moment of silence – thank God – Valerie started making those vine buckets again, with Paulina, Star and Tucker were helping, while Dash and Kwan were still gasping for air as if they just got out of Tucker's closet.

And for the first time, I noticed that Danny wasn't here. I got up, and started heading towards the ship. I started climbing the walls carefully, landing on the deck shortly after. I took a few footsteps deeper, until I heard noise coming from the supply room.

If dad were with me right now, he would've went, "What was that ruckus?"

Which then I would've laughed cuz ruckus is just a darn funny word. I headed towards the supply room, opened the door, and found Danny inside.

"Danny?" I asked, stating the obvious. He quickly turned around, shocked by the sudden noise – ruckus, hehe – accidently knocking over some brooms and sweepers.

"Hey," he said, trying to avoid getting hit by a couple of brooms and sweepers that were falling on him when he turned around to face me. It took him almost a full minute to put them back where they were standing, just waiting for someone to come in to knock them over.

"What are you doing?" I asked, one eyebrow raised. He ran his hand through his messy hair – in this most adorable way – and sighed, frustrated.

"I'm trying to find anything that might help us find food," he explained, opening boxes and searching through them, then doing it all over again if he didn't find anything.

"Well, Dash and Kwan – who might be dying right now – already brought some food from the woods," I pointed behind me at camp, my eyes still at Danny.

"Do you really think we'll survive on bananas and coconuts?" he asked, his eyes still fixed at what he was doing. I shrugged.

"I guess," I said, fully entering the room. "Fine, let me help you." I got by his side, and started searching the room. I didn't really know what we were looking for, but I looked around anyway.

I stopped when something caught my eye. I lifted up the small red box, and opened it. It had TONS of fishing hooks.

"Hey, Dan," I yelled over to him. "Check this out."

He came over to me, and raised an eyebrow. "Why would anybody put hooks in a supply room while on a cruise?"

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe to catch bate?"

"To what? Eagles?"

"Hey, I was supposed to be the sarcastic one."

He let out a chuckle. I looked back into the box, twisting my head to the side. "So," I said. "Whaddaya think we're gonna do with these?"

I looked over at him. He shrugged at first, but then, a sly smile spread across his face.

"What?" I asked, knowing he has an idea. He looked over at the brooms and sweepers, the same smile on his face. Catching up with him, my eyes widened.

"Oh, No," I said, horrified.

Looking at me, his grin grew wider. "Oh, yeah."

"Why Danny?" I asked him, heading to shore. "Why now? Did you have to finally come up with a great idea _now_?"

"Gee, thanks Sam, love your support," he said sarcastically.

"Again, I thought we agreed I was the sarcastic one," I said, making him smile again. We walked towards the shore, the water hitting out toes.

"Okay," Danny said, dropping the brooms, sweepers, vines, and the box of fish hooks. "Let's do this."

I let out a sigh in defeat. "Fine. But just know that this goes against everything I believe in."

We started holing the beginning of the stick of the broom, pulling a vine though it, sealing it carefully on the upper part. At the end of each rope, we applied a fish hook. After finishing doing those steps, we stood up, and flung the rope into the water.  
"God, I hate doing this," I whined, hoping he would take it easy on me and get Tucker here doing this instead of me. "Please let me go. You can't do this. I have a life too, y'know."

"What is this, another episode of 90210?" he asked, sneering. "Just pull in when you feel a pull on the stick."

Apparently, you figured out what his idea was; either you're a dork who needs glasses and an IQ. Danny's idea, unfortunately, was fishing. And he knows that I hate every minute of it, considering I don't eat, or kill anything with a face (Besides a dinosaur or a giant scorpion).

I let out a sigh in defeat, and waited. After a few minutes of nothing, Tucker, Valerie and Paulina came over to us.

"Whatcha doin'?" Paulina asked, in this freakishly accurate London Tipton way.

"Justa fishing," I said mockingly. She didn't notice though.

"Wait, isn't it just easier if you guys just walk into the water and catch a fish with your hand?" Valerie said, in a 'DUH' kind of voice.

Realizing she was right, I looked over at Danny, a scowl on my face. Ignoring it, he said, "This is why," and with that, he picked up a pebble, and threw it far into the ocean.

"What's a pebble gonna do?" Tucker asked. We turned our attention as the pebble was only inches away from the water. Before we know, fish with giant, pointy teeth and what seemed to be red eyes jumped out of the water, fighting over the pebble.

Our mouths flew open. Great, first the dinosaur, then the giant scorpion, now freaky fish.

"And you expect us to eat _that_?" Paulina asked, horrified and disgusted.

"Yep," Danny replied shortly, as if nothing happened.

"Well, that's not going in my mouth," Valerie said.

"Why?" Danny asked, looking at her.

"Well, sorry, but I never actually tried the meal See Food Deadly before," she said, stating what seemed to be the obvious. I couldn't help but snort. Danny playfully glared at her, while Paulina just stood there dumbstruck. Wow, there's a shock.

I rolled my eyes at Danny when he said, "Yeah, real mature."

Taking the chance, I quickly handed the fish pole\broom stick to Paulina, saying, "You like lipstick, so why don't you catch it?"

She seemed confused. "Wait, what does lipstick have anything to do with fish?" she asked.

"Oh, didn't you know?" I told her, trying not to laugh. "Most lipstick is made out of fish scales."

I quickly left along with Valerie and Tucker before she can throw up all over my feet. Tucker, Val and I were laughing all the way back to the logs. Dash and Kwan were still gasping – which is not so hard to believe – while Star was doing her best to comfort them.

"I am starving," Dash complained, throwing away a banana cover he scarped down his throat. "I don't think this fruit is doing anything."

After a few minutes of silence – Valerie doing her baskets again, with Tucker helping in this flirtatious way – Danny and Paulina came back.

"Dinner," Danny said in this funny French accent. "is served."

He and Paulina dropped loads of fish on the sand. Dash and Kwan straightening up, Star and Paulina licked their lips, while I just stayed disgusted and annoyed.

"I can't believe we have to eat this," I said when Danny was placing one of the fish on a stick and rolling it over the camp fire. After a few minutes of heating it up, its colour became darker, and looked warmer. He put the cooked fish in one of the baskets, got out his pocket knife, and started chopping it.

"Tucker, you taste it first," Danny said, holding up the knife. At this point, I think he was just as disgusted as I was.

"Aw, man, why me?" Tucker said whiningly.

"Fine, then, we make some sort of grown up, mature competition," Danny said. "Not it!"

"Not it!" all the other 'Not-Its' came after, one after another, and the ironic thing is, Tucker was the last one to call it.

"Fine," he said, taking the knife from Danny. He hesitantly put the fish meat into his mouth, his eyes closed, ready for the horrible taste. After a couple of chews, he said, "Hey, that's not so bad."

"Really, let me try," Danny took away the knife, and got another fish meat, and put it in his mouth. He nodded with every bite, assuring us it tasted good.

"Give me that," Dash said, taking a piece himself. After that came Kwan, then Star, then Valerie, and then Paulina. I just sat there disgusted.

"C'mon, Sam," Danny said, his mouth full. "You have got to try this."

"I'd rather eat barf," I said, pushing away the piece he was shoving at me. He shrugged, and slipped it into his mouth, saying, "Your loss."

As if a light bulb lighted above his head, Tucker quickly got up, and headed towards some rocks near the shore. Nobody seemed to notice. They all kept on eating, commenting, "This is so good" and "Lovin' this island food."

I had to close my eyes to keep from vomiting. When I opened them, Tucker had made his way back with some seaweed.

"What's with the seaweed, Tuck?" I asked. He smiled, and sat down beside Valerie.

"You'll see," he said. He rolled something into the seaweed, and handed it over to me. "Here Sam, try this."

I looked at him suspiciously, but took the roll anyway. I slowly slipped it into my mouth, chewing carefully, with all eyes on me. Once I adjusted the taste, it actually wasn't that bad.

"It tastes good," I informed them, taking another roll from Tucker and putting it into my mouth.

"Give me that," Paulina took a roll from him, and slipped it into her mouth. "This is good; what is it?"

Slipping a roll into his mouth, he said, "Uncooked fish meat rapped in seaweed, aka, sushi."

I spit the food out of my mouth in shock, realizing what I just ate.

"You fed me fish?" I yelled at Tucker, still in shock. "What's next, you're gonna cook me up a cat?"

"Ew, Sam, let's not get disgusting," Tucker said, making a face as he slipped another roll into his mouth. I raised my eyebrows, telling him, "Oh yeah, who just fed me dead fish in a seaweed wrap?"

"Oh, just get over it," Star said, eating one of the 'sushi' roll. I looked over at the sea, and realized it was sunset.

I tried to get rid of the taste on my tongue with some fruit. After a few minutes of eating, Kwan randomly asked, "So food's covered, but what about water?"

"Well," Star started. "We could evaporate the water from the salt by putting the sea water into a plate or something in the sun, making sure there's glass above it and another bowl next to it, so when the water evaporates, pure water with fall into a bowl, while all the other would contain is salt water."

All our mouths flew open. ALL of us. I mean, seriously, this was STAR. It wasn't Valerie talking, it wasn't Tucker talking, heck, it wasn't even Kwan talking. Even Paulina sat gaping next to her.

"That's right, not just another pretty face, people," she emphasized 'pretty face' with pointing at her face. "But it is pretty, isn't it?"

After we did the whole water experiment thing, there was the upside that there was plenty of pure water. The downside is that it took us almost forever since the sun had set, so we had to hold a torch onto it. The evaporation process went slower than an old lady eating pie.

After what seemed like forever, we all had fresh bottles of water – we found the bottles on the ship – and were getting tired. We all sat in the positions we sat in yesterday – Paulina next to Star, Dash next to Kwan, Tucker forcing Valerie to sit next to him, leaving me with Danny (Yay!).

"'Night Dan," I said, getting comfy on his arm.

"'Night, Sammy," he said, a smile on his face.

"Don't call me that," I said, but I was so tired that I didn't seem to care that much. Before anyone drifted to unconsciousness, we heard a very loud growl. And it was as if it was right next to our ears.


	8. The Journey Begins

**Author's Note: **Hey y'all! I'm back with another chappie! YAY! Sorry for keeping you waiting, PLEASE DON"T KILL ME! I tried to add a little humor, but tell me what you think! Anyway, On with the chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the awesome Danny Phantom, but I do own this awesome plot!.. Sort of..

* * *

Chapter 8

The Journey Begins

_First Beach, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

My eyes snapped open. I jumped out my place, and looked around. The others seemed to get out of their sleep, and look around in their seats.

"Did you guys just hear that?" Star asked, getting up like all the others. We stood in silence for a moment, looking around. After a minute of nothing, we all seemed to relax.

"Okay," Valerie said, irritated. "Look, we're gonna have to write about what's happening on this island, just to remember. Here, Dash," she went to the gun box, and lifted up my journal. There were a lot of empty papers, and a pen. She handed it over to Dash. "Take notes of what's happening right now."

Looking around again, we didn't see anything.

"How do you spell nothin'?" he asked, looking up from the paper.

"I was sure I heard something," I muttered, looking around.

After another moment of complete silence, Dash said, writing down, "More nothin'."

"Let's just get back to sleep," Paulina said, getting comfy on the log. I stood two seconds looking around, and as Dash said, there was 'Nothin'."

As I was heading back to sit on the log, I heard something breathe heavily. This time, when I turned around, there was a skeleton standing in front of me.

I stumbled against the logs in shock, accidently falling onto Danny's lap.

"What?" Danny asked, as shocked as I was when I stumbled on his lap. "What's wrong, Sam?"

I tried to speak, but all that came out was gibberish.

"Speak Goth," Dash said, clearly annoyed. "What could possible make you – "

That's when Paulina screamed. She obviously saw it, since she pointed at it, and said, "There!"

Everybody turned around, and saw the skeleton for the first time.

"Holy crap," Dash said, getting up slowly, like everyone else. "This definitely wipes the 'nothin' off my list."

The skeleton, whose bones were covered with dirt, and his eyes flamed red. He didn't make a move; he just stood there, staring at us.

"What do you think it wants?" Kwan asked, moving closer.

"I don't know," Valerie said. "Food or something? If it even eats."

"I don't think it's here for food," Danny said. My heart pumped like a drum against my chest. Paulina and Star whimpered, hiding behind Dash and Kwan.

"Maybe it's just scared," Tucker said, moving closer. "Like when it comes to spiders. You're always scared of them, but they're actually the ones scared from you."

"What are you doing?" I asked him when he started walking ahead of me and to the skeleton. "Are you crazy?"

"Maybe," he said. "But this island can make a guy lose his sanity."

He closed up to the skeleton. "Hey there," he said, which made me think he really did lose his head. "Don't be scared. We won't hurt you. Could you help us? We're trying to search for a way off this island."

The skeleton titled his head, looking at him with what seemed to be a puppy-dog pout. I don't know how he did that, considering he's a skeleton and all.

"See?" Tucker turned to us. "Completely harmless."

But when he was looking at us, the skeleton's eyes flashed red, and the look on his face – Is that even possible? – appeared to be a murderous one. Before anything could happen, the skeleton let out a huge growl. The one that would make your hair fly off your neck and into the air.

"Yep," I said, my hair still up. "Definitely harmless."

"Can we run now?" Star asked, still hiding behind Kwan.

"Okay," Tucker said in a hoarse voice. When he said that, Paulina and Star went into a shrieking fit, running around the beach like a three year old would do with a clown.

Upon hearing the screams, the skeleton started going mad, attacking us from every side.

"What are we gonna do?" I yelled, dodging a kick from the skeleton. Without wasting time, Danny went to the gun box, and got out a gun. He aimed it the skeleton, and pulled the trigger. The bullet went right through its bones, landing on the sand.

"Okay, I don't think the guns would work," Danny said, dropping the gun back into the box.

"Then maybe we're just gonna have to do it the old-fashioned way," Valerie said, running towards it and kicking it in the shin.

"Now, I like _that _idea," I said, heading closer to the skeleton, jumping to direct forward kicks into his skull.

"You know Kung Fu?" Danny asked, looking a bit shocked. He wasn't shocked from Valerie because she does all this ghost hunting.

"Nope," I said, spinning in the air and directing another kick into its face. "Tae Kwan Do."

I quickly picked up one of the broom sticks (aka fish poles), and hit the skeleton on its legs. That wasn't much help.

I ran towards him, and gave him the stick. "Hold this," I said, handing him the stick. He looked confused, but before he could do anything, I held the rope, and started spinning around the skeleton. He looked around at me, clearly not understanding what I was doing. When the rope came to an end, he realized that I had tied him up.

"That outta hold you," I said, tightening the rope. He started spinning around, trying to get out of it.

"Nice work, Sam," Tucker commented, watching in amusement as the skeleton tried to find its way out of the rope.

Then something weird happened, the skeleton suddenly let out a shriek, one that came make you deaf, and then… disappeared. I'm not kidding; it just turned into sand – grey sand, since it was night – and just vanished.

"Well, that was weird," Dash said.

"Thank you Captain 'Duh'," I said, turning back to where the skeleton was supposedly tied up.

"That's it," Danny said, shaking his head. "We are gonna go around this island, because there is something going on here."

He started heading over to the ship, me and the others following behind.

"Where are you going?" I asked, climbing up the ship with him. He started heading towards that cabins. After a few minutes, he got out with what seemed like three or four backpacks, and one of them seemed like it was filled with something.

"Okay," Danny said as we headed back towards the beach. "Everybody go change. Girls, your clothes bag is over there by the gun box, guys, I got some clothes here. Okay, everybody put away whatever can be useful on this trip in these backpacks, and then we'll be good to go."

While everybody looked confused, I rolled my eyes, and started heading towards the Girls' clothes bag. I got out the black bikini, the same white shirt, and some beige shorts I found. I went through some trees, and in almost thirty seconds, had the new outfit on.

I got back out to camp, realizing that the others had gotten into the trees to do the same. I got one of the backpacks and started heading towards the logs. I got my tool belt, and wrapped it around my waist. I put the girls' clothes bag in the backpack where the boys kept their clothes. I got another backpack, put some fruit in, and put the fish into a bag, then put it into the backpack. I got some of the bottles of water we had and pushed into another one of the backpacks. I separated everything into a bag, making sure I got everything. There was one extra bag. What could be missing?

"I think you're missing something," I heard Danny say from behind me. I looked up from where I was crouching in front of the bags, and saw Danny pulling the box of guns. Oh right, the guns; almost forgot about those. "Here, let me help you."

He got the empty backpack, and started stuffing all the guns and rifles into it. I filled the bag with the equipment in every possible space it can hold.

"I think that just about does it," he said, closing the bag. There were a few guns still in the box. Gesturing to them with his head, he said, "We'll carry these with us, just in case we run into more of those dinosaurs."

I got a gun, and put it into one of the spaces in my tool belt.

"Do you think we're gonna be okay?" I asked him after a moment of silence. "I mean, we almost got killed by one dinosaur, what are we gonna do if we walk through the woods with more than one of them?"

"This is you and I you're talking about," he said, a reassuring smile on his face. "As long as we're together, everything is gonna be okay."

It may have been my imagination, but I thought I heard something in his tone. I wasn't able to make it out, but, it was just, there… we locked gazes, and I seemed to be lost in his sky blue orbs. We started leaning in, our faces only a few inches apart.

_What are you doing? _A voice said at the back of my head. _He's your best friend! Stop fooling around Sam! _

I ignored that voice. It was just my inner conscious that wanted desperately to ruin my life. Danny and I were inches apart, but sadly, before we could close the gap, Valerie came to us.

"Hey, guys," she said, making us break away quicker than you could say 'Dinosaur'. She was now wearing – apparently what she could find – beige shorts, with a red t-shirt with the initials 'Kick-Ass' on it. "Where are all the bottles of water?"

"Uh," I said, trying to get the dizziness of the recent events out of my head. "I stuffed them all in this backpack." I pointed to the backpack, and Valerie took out a bottle, and started heading towards the others, who were either tying their shoelaces or getting ready.

"I-uh," Danny said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I better go give them the backpacks. Let's hope we get out alive."

He got up, and headed to the others. After being dazed, thoughts exploded on me. _What was he doing - was he going to kiss me? – Does he like – scratch that – _love _me the way I do?_

I blinked. "What just happened?"

_You were about to kiss your best friend._

Great, _you're _back. Why can't you just disappear like these past few days?

_I'm only here to stop you from ruining your friendship with Danny. We both know that it's the most valuable thing you ever have. _

But what if he feels the same way I do?

_Maybe. But is it worth ruining your friendship?_

I guess you're right – wait a minute! No, you are NOT right! If he feels the same, then it might turn into something beautiful, but if we stay like this, than our feelings would have to be buried deep inside, and I'm no therapist, but I'm not sure that's even healthy. Besides, who are you to tell me what to do in my personal life?

_I'm the little voice inside your head that won't let you forget._

Wait, aren't those Hilary Duff's lyrics?

_Just don't do anything you might regret._

Here's something I won't regret: Go away.

After a minute of silence, I didn't hear anything. Stop giving me that look! So, I hear voices, but so what? Most great woman do!

Anyway, I got up from where I was resting, and started heading to the others. I carried one of the backpacks, and stepped into their conversation.

"Are you sure we're gonna be okay?" Star asked Danny, who was handing out what was left in the box of guns, and handing them to the others. I had already had a gun, so he hadn't given one to me.

"Trust me," Danny said, giving the last gun to Star. "We're going to be just fine."

"Okay," Valerie said, putting the gun in her pocket. "Let's go."

We stood in front of the trees, taking deep breaths.

"Well," I said. "Here goes nothing."

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**A/N: **There you go! Yeah, I sort of now that almost every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger, but that sort of builds up the tension and curiosity! Anyways, I don't promise another update until at least next month, cuz I'm kinda travelling to Alexandria! Yay! I've been travelling it for almost every summer of every year, but I guess it's like a second home to me! Anyways, please review! They make every author smile!

Peace out!


	9. Walk, Much?

**Author's Note: **HI! *Waves* SO SO sorry I hadn't updated! I was SUPER busy and had MAJOR writer's block! Besides, school just started, and now I'm sitting in the living room, and I'm about to open a bag of chips! YAY!

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own DP, but I own these chips! *Brother snatches them out of my hands and runs off* HEY! Get back with my chips, you twrip!

* * *

_Chapter 9_

_Walk, Much?_

_Woods, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

I started pushing away the bushes that were getting in my way, and when I let them go, they accidentally hit Paulina in the face.

"OW!" she yelled, her hands covering her face. I couldn't help but let out a laugh. I had wanted to scar that perfect little face for ages.

We started walking again after a few laughs.

"So," Tucker said, making conversation. "Does anybody know where we're going?"

"Nope," I said shortly, sticking one of the photos from my journal and on one of the trees. We decided to stick together this time, because last time we split up, I almost got eaten by a hungry dinosaur. "But we're going somewhere. And every somewhere has a something. And sometimes, every something has a someone who could get us out of here."

"Wait, that doesn't even make any sense," Star said, a confused look on her face.

"Just walk," I said, picking up my pace so I can catch up with Danny. You'd think things would get all awkward between us, but we come back as our normal selves after a time of five to ten minutes. Unless we had actually kissed, then it would've lead up to twenty or twenty five minutes. But gladly, things were back to normal.

"Though, seriously," I told him in a hushed tone so no one can hear us. "Exactly _where _are we going?"

"I honestly don't know," he said, letting me chuckle a bit. "All I know is that if we keep walking, we just might find – "

"Dinosaurs," Valerie said calmly, who was right behind us. She stopped in her tracks, and looked up. Danny and I followed her gaze, and saw about three or four dinosaurs up ahead.

Paulina was about to shriek – she does that _a lot _– but thankfully, Dash covered her mouth before she could do so.

"Quickly," I whispered, but I was loud enough for them to hear me. "Hide in the bushes."

We all went through the bushes, and closed the tree branches in on us to hide us more clearly.

"Here," I said, getting some leaves off the bush and passing it over to them. "Rub this on yourself so you can hide your scent."

"I have a scent?" Paulina asked, a shocked look on her face. I rolled my eyes, and rubbed a leave around her face myself, ignoring her struggles.

I ordered them shut up, and they did so, but not because of my controlling tone and do-as-I-say-or-you're-gonna-get-it glare, but because a dinosaur was making its way towards us, sniffing. Paulina – who caught the rub-the-leaf-on-you concept, started rubbing the leaf all over herself.

The dinosaur sniffed more, and started lowering its head towards where we were hiding. His nose crept in through the bushes, and we started backing away quietly. His nose found its way towards Paulina, sniffing, seeing if he caught something.

Paulina slightly whimpered, as the dinosaur's nose was only inches away from touching her. She was breathing in ragged gasps, and was about to let out a scream. This time, all of our hands connected with her mouth so she wouldn't do so. Because if she had, we were going to be dead meat – no pun intended.

After a few more sniffs, the dinosaur took its nose out of the bushes, and started walking away. We all let out a relieved sigh, and took our hands away from Paulina's mouth. That was when we realized she was trembling. Hard.

"Paulina, you're shaking like a chiwawa," Tucker said, because she was actually shaking hard. She was starting to breath in ragged gasps again, and her whimpering picked up.

"No, I'm fine," she slightly whimpered, her voice breaking at _fine_. "Nothing was wrong with the sight of a dinosaur's noise right in front of me; I'm just shaken up a little."

That was when she fainted. Really. She just sagged down onto Star's lap, and passed out. Usually, I would've expected her to do that if she found out she broke a nail, but I guess a dinosaur can do the trick.

"Okay," Danny said, breaking the silence. "Someone should carry her. Not it!"

I turned towards Danny with a raised eyebrow. I expected something like "I call dibs on carrying her!" from him, but instead, he doesn't want to carry her and be the hero. Okay, something's wrong here.

"Not it!" Tucker said after him abruptly, probably disturbed by the fact that he had to carry something besides his back pack.

Before Kwan could say the next "Not it!", Dash said, "I guess I'm it."

He started cradling Paulina in his arms, and carried her bridal style, stumbling a little bit.

"She heavy?" Star asked, noticing the stumble.

"Not really," he said, shrugging. "Even if she was, I wouldn't notice, considering I have a six pack."

I rolled my eyes as we got out of our hiding place. If there was anyone with a six pack it was definitely Danny. Fighting ghosts _really _paid off. If you put a picture of Danny without a shirt next to Taylor Lautner, you wouldn't notice a difference. Really.

Danny and the others followed after me, looking around anxiously for any other creatures. We were lucky because there were no other dinosaurs in sight anymore. We started staggering through the bushes, trees, and leaves and tree bark kept falling whenever we gave the trees a slight touch.

Before we knew it, the weather started picking up, and the moon lay high in the sky. If I'd have known it was going to be this cold, I would've worn a one piece bathing suit under the shirt. And I would've brought a jacket. Perfect.

I started rubbing my arms, trying to keep the heat in my body by friction. The wind ran through the leaves of the trees, sending an urban sent flow by me. My hair started flowing around my face, making it hard to see the path in front of me.

"Cold?" I heard Danny ask from beside me. We had started picking up our pace so that we were almost invisible to all the others. I liked that because they wouldn't see us and they probably wouldn't even hear us either because of this storming wind.

I nodded, shivering. "Damn, you're lucky to have ice powers. I bet you don't even feel a thing."

Danny shrugged. From where we were, I couldn't even hear the others. I was guessing we were about twenty feet in front of them. I wouldn't blame them for walking slow, I was _freezing. _Another shiver went down my spine, and I tried hard not to tremble. How did the weather pick up so quickly? Damn this stupid island.

Seeing my point, Danny stopped walking. I looked at him in confusion, frowning. He started taking off the black leather jacket he was wearing, and then I understood.

"No, Danny, its okay," I said, trying to keep the jacket on him, since he was only wearing a short sleeved blue t-shirt underneath. "Look, I'm fine. Just keep your jacket on, or _you'll _freeze."

Completely indifferent, Danny draped the jacket over my shoulders, no matter how much I protested. "I don't mind, really. Besides, you said it yourself, being a ghost is really helpful at blocking out weather like this." Seeing my suspicious look, he added, "I'm serious, Sam. Just take the damn jacket."

Sighing, I gave in to his puppy-dog pout – and to my body's urge for warmth – and wrapped the jacket tighter around me. Thanking God the leather was warm, I gave Danny a smile. He smiled back, and we continued walking.

We walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. This island was endless. The others were able to catch up with us now, and I saw Paulina groaning in Dash's arms.

"What-what happened?" she stammered, stifling a yawn. She looked up at Dash's face, and then realized he was carrying her. "Um, Dash, why are you carrying me?"

"Because little-miss-princess, you passed out," Valerie said, clearly annoyed. Okay, I was starting to like the new Valerie, considering she would never dare insult Paulina if we were still in Amity. She was always trying to rebuild her A-list status by getting closer to Paulina and Star, and now I was guessing that she couldn't care less.

Paulina, upon hearing that she had passed out, said, "I did _not _pass out. I just… I was tired and wanted to get some sleep."

"Right," said Dash, tired of arguing with her. "Sure you did. Now, will you walk, or should I keep carrying you?"

Paulina, being smarter than we usually give her credit for, faked a yawn. "Yeah, please do, Dashy," she said in the most faked-out sweet voice ever. "I think I'm getting really tired."

Groaning, I stopped walking. "Okay," I said as the group came to a halt, surprised that I stopped. "That's enough walking for one night. I think we should get some sleep. We got a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Yeah, but where will we go?" Tucker asked, although I was pretty sure he also wanted to stop and rest. "We can't go back to camp now, and I don't think we might find any cave to camp in."

"I beg to differ," Danny murmured, pushing through some leaves that were blocking our way. I frowned, thinking he actually found a cave in the middle of the woods, but, as I squinted hard to see through the broken, green leaves, I thought I saw a hint of blue. Confused, I pushed through the last leaves that were blocking our way, and a small lake appeared.

Seriously. A lake. Well, it wasn't _really _a lake. It was sort of a hole descending from a small hill with water flowing through it, with little rocks along the way that made it descend like little droplets of waterfalls. The water looked fresh blue, totally clean, and there was grass and dirt surrounding it. There were trees circling this little oasis-like clearing, with long leaves and bushes everywhere. Right were the lake ended, there were trees right in front of it, with large leaves falling almost ten or twenty feet from it just like umbrellas. That made a good shade and a good sitting-and-sleeping place, as the little 'shaded area' was big enough that almost twenty people could be able to sit there. What amazed me the most though, were the tiny little clusters of flowers emerging from the earth. Clusters of orchids, hibiscus, and sunflowers were lying peacefully around the small lake, the bushes, and the trees. On a damned island, this was actually a peaceful, wonderful sight that I was longing to see.

Apparently agreeing with me, a set of "Wow's" escaped our group. Everybody was staring wide-eyed, awestruck at the sight before us, and even Paulina had quit her act and was gaping. I had to say; after all we've seen lately, this was a sight for sore eyes.

"Well," Danny said, breaking out of his awestruck stance like I was starting to. "I'm guessing that little spot under those leaves would be a good place to camp, don't you think?"

As if on cue, I felt something wet hit my shoulder. I looked up, and little droplets of water started descending from the sky. Have I mentioned that it rained _a lot _here on this freaky dinosaur island? So, as the rain started flowing down, hitting and splattering our faces, we all started heading to the small shaded area. We all crowded into it at first, our backpacks getting in the way. When most of us were seated, it was easier to get into the small shaded place better. We all took off our backpacks, and threw them into a pile at the corner, that was shaded from the rain. Danny and I were right next to the bags, almost cut off from the others, who were trying to make conversation and chat normally like we were back home at the Nasty Burger. I had to say, it was kind of soothing chatting normally like that with the peaceful rain pouring and the beautiful flowers blooming beside us.

"Isn't this so… well, normal?" Danny asked, mirroring my thoughts. I smiled at him, and reached into the backpacks to get out some snacks. Well, if you call bananas and coconuts snacks. I gave him almost five of each, and told him to pass it on. Everybody now seemed at ease and okay, as if we were on a school field trip, not stranded on a damned dinosaur island. Peaceful didn't even start to cut it.

"Yeah," I agreed, digging into my banana. "Well, in a weird, Dinosaur Island twisted kind of way."

He chuckled slightly, finishing his food. We spent the next half an hour or something making jokes, making small talk, chatting, and occasionally making fun of Paulina. This was starting to be a really good night. I looked around and saw Paulina's head resting on Dash's lap, with Star leaning on her, and Kwan's head resting on a tree behind him, his eyes closed. Tucker and Valerie were trying – and failing – not to fall asleep, sagging into each other. I actually found it cute how Tucker was able to win her over on a deserted island and not in a normal sunny day at Amity Park. I was just afraid they might start making out without any warning any minute now.

After a long moment of comfortable silence, I said, "So, what do we do now?"

"I don't know," Danny sighed, and I was impressed on how the little drops of water that got past the leaves looked as they flowed from his hair across his face, making him seem very sexy. "But we're going to have to find _something _that can tell us anything about this freaky island. And if we just can get one piece of information, then that would be our ticket out of here."

I smiled in spite of myself. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But we better find something soon. And I really hope we don't run into any of those scorpions of skeletons tonight. I _really _need some sleep after last night."

He smiled at me lazily, yawning. "Yeah, me too."

Without being able to keep myself, the words just slipped out of my mouth. "You're cute when you're tired."

Realizing what I just said, I covered my hand over my mouth, thinking by that I could take these words back. Frozen mid-stretch, Danny turned to me with a confused look. Then, he did the last thing I thought he would.

He laughed.

"Man," he said, taking control of his laughter. "You must be _really _tired there, Sammy."

Sighing in relief, I played along. "Yeah. I guess I am. And watch the Sammy, Ghost Boy."

He grinned, and rolled his eyes at me, making sure that everyone else was asleep. He turned back to me, saying softly, "Just so you know, you are also cute when you're tired."

My breath caught, and I thought he was kidding. But, sure enough, he started leaning in. I don't know what came over me, but at that second, nothing seemed to matter. So, I leaned in as well, anticipating his eagerness. We were so close now that I felt his breath tangle across my skin, sending shivers down my spine. Our lips were almost inches apart now, almost brushing against each other…

And then it happened. Tucker, who had been sitting so quietly and unmoving on his side, jerked his leg abruptly, hitting it against Danny. It sent him in another direction, causing his face to turn and his lips, instead of brushing against mine, landed on my cheek. He was obviously as in shock as I was, but nonetheless, he brushed his lips gently on my cheek. He let go of me, and I stared into his perfect pools of blue.

He smiled, and said, "Good night, Sammy."

Burying my confused feelings, I returned his smile. As I was trying to sit comfortably and rest my back on the trees, he extended his arm. I looked at him in confusion, and he gestured with his raised arm toward him. I thought he was joking at first, but the glint in his eyes told me he was serious. I mentally shrugged, and shifted my position, and rested my head on his chest. I felt his arm go around me, holding me protectively close.

I smiled as the small drops of rain started pouring on my face through the leaves. "This is nice," I said, closing me eyes. "It feels safe."

I thought I heard him laugh. I think I even heard him whisper, "Sweet dreams, Sammy," but I wouldn't know, because then, little black spots covered my vision, and I let sleep consume me. And for the first time since crashing on this island, I felt at peace in Danny's arms.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, so yeah, that's it. 7 pages is really good considering I had writer's block and was just... winging it. XD

Please review!


	10. Curses

**Author's Note: **Hi!

I bet you love me now. Just one week late! XD YAY! I actually updated! I am so glad I was able to get passed my parents and use the PC, what with school and Tae Kwan Do practice (AIYA!) And thank you so much! I love you people! I am really happy with the reviews I'm getting! Thank you! You put a smile on this authoress' face! XD Luv you reviewers!

**Disclaimer: ***Sigh* I don't own DP, but I own the plot and the Lost Island! MWWAAHAHAHAHAHAA!

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_Chapter 10_

_Curses_

_Lake, Woods, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

His fingertips traced my bottom lip, making me shiver. His breath tingled on my throat where he bent down to kiss it, making a chill run down my spine. I knew this was a dream, it had to be. But it felt so real, oh so real. We were at the small lake, with the sun shining on my back. The birds chirped, and the flowers gave the air a nice scent. The small trickles of water flowed along the river, its sound soothing and peaceful. His lips traveled up my throat, onto my jaw, before landing smack on my lips. I loved him, loved Danny so much that –

Wait, Danny?

Okay, this wasn't right. I may be dreaming and you can do whatever it is you want in dreams, but dreaming about your best friend kissing you and how it felt was _not _right. Yeah, true, maybe I _was _starting to fall for him, but isn't it just a _bit _creepy? I mean, what if I was in his place and he was dreaming this way about me? I'd be pretty freaked out too.

Nonetheless, I loved that feeling. The feeling of his hands all over me, the feeling of his lips on mine, the love radiating from him –

BANG!

I woke up with a jolt, gasping in surprise. The sound came without any warning, snapping me out of my lustful dream. I woke up to realize I had been resting my head on one of the backpacks, and the sun was beginning to penetrate the leaves. The others around me, also woken up by the sudden bang, had their eyes wide open with shock. My face was dripping with sweat, and I had a feeling it wasn't from the sun, but from that dream. What _was _that dream about, anyway? How could I dream about something like that in this time? We were stuck on an island – with dinosaurs and skeletons to name the least – and I was dreaming of lust with Danny? Man, I didn't know I had it _that _bad.

I lifted my head from the bag, looking around. Everything seemed perfectly normal; there was the lake, the flowers, the grass, the dirt, the trees, Danny on one of the trees with a branch cut off –

What the hell?

Noticing me staring at him in bewilderment, he said, grinning, "Good morning."

I quirked eyebrow at him, getting up. "Good morning," I walked towards the branch that was now on the ground, its base digging into the grass and the dirt. "What are you doing?"

He shrugged. "Was trying to get any other food, and sorta, kinda, accidentally – "

"Cut off the tree branch," I finished for him, kicking the branch with my foot, rolling my eyes. "Really original, Danny."

He grinned, and started climbing down. By this time, all the others were moaning and groaning, getting up for a new day at this island. Paulina was obviously thrilled at waking up with her head on Dash's lap, and she was in a pretty good mood. Valerie and Tucker, well, I think they were sending each other secret messages through their eyes, as the normal couple of the day do. As Danny was about to jump off the last five feet, his foot missed the bark he was resting on, and he tripped and fell to the floor. There was a _thud _as his body collided with the ground, and I raced over to him.

"You okay, clumsy?" I asked, offering him my hand. He rolled his eyes at the nickname, and grabbed my hand gratefully.

"Really, Danny," Tucker said, smirking. "I thought that you'd have control over your clumsiness by now."

Danny shook his head, ignoring him. I felt pressure on my hand, and looking down, I realized we were still holding hands. We let go at the same time, and I had to fight a blush that was rising to my cheeks. It was also hard to forget that dream when I just touched him, even if it was just his hand. Oh, God, this was going to be a hard dream to forget.

Valerie yawned. "Well, now that we're all up, we can get breakfast, wash up and get back moving."

At hearing the word 'moving', Paulina, Star, Kwan and Dash groaned. Really, we want to keep resting and sleeping too, but we have to find a way to get off this island, right? Right. So instead of getting pissed off at actually having to _work, _they should be grateful they were on this island with _us _instead of, what, Mr. Lancer? Yeah, I heard he was one of the teachers who were assigned to come with us, but Thank God he didn't. So, we got assigned with some captain and a crew we didn't know, who were currently out there somewhere on this island. And we really needed to find them. I could bet a thousand dollars that some of them were dead because of the recklessness they put in going out into this island alone, without even knowing what they were facing. I almost ended up dead for doing exactly that, and my arm was still hurting.

_And speaking of my arm…_

I looked down at my bandaged arm, and realized that it was bleeding. The white bandage had stains of red on it, and for the first time since I got it, I started realizing that it was starting to slightly hurt. Everybody started getting up, either going to get energy breakfast or to the lake to wash their faces. I went over to one of the bags, and got out the First Aid kit we stuffed in it. Grabbing it, I went over to the lake. I grabbed my bandage, and started unwrapping it, revealing a bloody hole in the middle. For the first time, I realized how bad it looks. I folded my hand, and got in a little water in my palm. I rubbed the water on the injury, and I repeated that almost ten times, trying to cause the bleeding to stop. I also washed the bandage, cleaning it from all the blood until it was completely white again. That's when things got a bit tricky. It was hard to wrap the bandage on my arm when I couldn't keep it from sliding down. Damn it.

I felt a pair of hands go around my arms. "Here," Danny said, gripping the bandage, wrapping it tightly around my arm. "Let me help you."

I smiled at him gratefully. The events of last night's almost-kiss still didn't escape my mind, but I won't let the tension build up now. We needed each other more than anything. And now was a good time for his rescuing, because I really don't know what I would have done without him. He was always there for me. He was my Danny (Wow, I just sounded like a head-over-heels freak… better take care of that.)

Once he finished wrapping it, I smiled at him again. "My hero." He grinned, and started getting up, offering his hand to me. I took it gratefully, and lifted myself off the ground. Looking around again, I realized that Valerie, Tucker and Dash were starting to carry the backpacks, ready to get back on the road – okay, not really _road_, more like muddy, dinosaur poop… okay, _that _didn't help…

"Are we ready to go?" Danny asked, switching into leader mode. The others nodded, and Paulina and Star had to be literally dragged off the ground by Dash and Kwan. I shook my head at them, rolling my eyes in exasperation. Really? This was _not _the time for whiny, innocent 'but I'm tired' acts.

I sighed, and lifted one of the backpacks. I looked at the others, and they had a look of determination on their face… well, except for 'Whiny-Miss-Paulina', who had a look of tiredness and disgust on her face. We all sighed, and started walking again. Tucker had the journal, and he was placing the photos on the trees as we walked.

After walking a very comfortable silence, Paulina, of course, had to whine. "Are we there yet?"

"No," I said shortly, not even bothering to tell her we had no targeted place. She sighed, and kept on walking. I was grateful for the silence, it meant less complaining and whining. The only sound was the ruffling of grass and leaves underneath us, the sound of Tucker pinning the papers to the bark of the tree, and our breathing.

And then there was the growling.

We all abruptly froze, looking around. The sound had been faint, yet it felt so close. We all looked around anxiously, listening carefully. At first, the only sound we heard was our breathing, but then, there was the faintest sound of a leaf getting crunched. I jerked, getting into a fighting stance position. Valerie and Danny did the same, our eyes sweeping through every space between the trees and leaves, trying to spot anything. After a few minutes of silence, I started relaxing, and so did the others. The tension had been so big in the air that you could've cut it with a knife.

"What was that?" whispered a scared Star, who was trying to take control of her rabid gasping. Honestly, I didn't know what that was, but it was something. And I also had a feeling that the faster we move the better.

"Nothing," I said, trying to calm the group of preps down. "Let's just keep going."

They all relaxed visibly, and continued walking. I caught Danny's eyes for a split minute, sending him a silent message to keep his eyes out for anything. He nodded slightly, and we continued walking.

This. Was. Endless. Seriously, how big was this damn island? We just kept on walking, and walking, and walking, and not even a small lake like the one we just departed from came into view. God. It was all trees, trees, trees, oh, would you look at that, trees. Damn, this was not going according to plan.

"Are we there yet?" Paulina repeated her earlier question, causing me to get even more irritated.

I decided to mess with her. "Yes."

She brightened. "Really?"

I looked at her in exasperation, yelling, "No!" She pouted, and folded her arms across her chest. We kept on going straight, and Paulina was about to whine again. Well, that is, until I gave her one of my 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' glares that she took the hint and shut up. Okay, I was getting really irritated with her. And trees. Once I go back home, I'll loosen up about those dudes who destroy trees to build malls and apartments and whatnot. I was getting really tired of trees.

Well, that is, until a small clearing appeared in front of us.

Really. Just like that from out of the blue. There was grass circling the clearing, and in the middle, there was beige-colored dirt, and there was also sand. There weren't flowers around the trees like the lake, just an empty clearing with lots and lots of trees surrounding us.

Well, except for the huge wall in front of us.

"What the hell?" Valerie murmured, voicing her thoughts. 'What the hell' was right. The wall was stone-like, beige, with cravings and writings on it. Squinting, Danny and I were the first ones to get closer to it. There were cravings in the form of words that represented some foreign language I didn't know. There were drawings of ancient people in robes, holding fire torches, hawks, with really long hair and slim figures. Well, that was confusing.

"What do you think this language is?" Danny asked, tracing his fingers on the confusing carvings. By that time, the others had joined us, looking as bewildered as I was.

"Whoa, wait," Tucker said, narrowing his eyes as he leaned closer to the carvings. "Is that Esperanzo?"

We all turned towards him. Dash raised one eyebrow at him, saying, "Esperanzo? Geek language?"

"Dash," Valerie exclaimed, annoyed. "There happens to be a lot of languages nowadays. And I think Tucker's actually smart for speaking more than English."

"There are," Tucker said, seemingly pleased that Valerie actually stood up to him and called him smart. "But this happens to be Geek language."

I rolled my eyes, and made space for Tucker to stand right in front of the wall. He started muttering some things that I didn't understand, his hand tracing word after word.

"'The Curse of the Lost Island has existed for a thousand years'," Tucker read, his eyes scanning word after word. "'Ever so often when a person sets foot on the island, they are damned to death, and their bodies decompose, leaving only the skeleton behind. These skeletons are transformed into a monster, along with others that live on this Damned Island. The Curse lasts for at least two weeks until the monsters sweep through every curve of the island, killing those intruders.'"

I held my breath. "It's a warning," I whispered, repeating Tucker's words in my head. "It's a warning telling us to get the hell off this island."

"A curse?" Valerie said, and I recalled Tucker repeating that word. "So _that _explains everything."

It all came clear to me. The dinosaurs, the scorpions, the skeletons – and that one was explained – were all causes from that stupid curse. Damn.

"Is there a way, to, y'know, _uncurse _this island?" Star asked, still stricken by the horror of being on a cursed island. She did have a point there. Was there a way to reverse the curse?

Tucker went back to the wall. "I think. Let's see." His finger traced the carvings, and rested near the bottom. "'There is only one way to reverse the Curse, one that no one has tried. All of the creatures wear a symbol at any part of their bodies, and that symbol – that resembles the triquetra triangle – is the only solution to the Curse. There is a cave in the middle of Lost Island. The symbol must be placed on a podium there, and that shall let the Curse be reversed unless the symbol gets removed.'"

I frowned. Something was familiar about that 'symbol' thing. I absently dug into my pocket, feeling something solid. I got it out, holding it in my hand and inspecting it curiously.

"What does that 'symbol' thing mean?" asked Dash, trying to remember whether he saw anything as a symbol on one of the creatures on this island.

"I think I know," I said, lifting the circular thing in my hand. There was something carved on it, and it was in the shape of circular triangles crossing each other. Or better yet, a triquetra triangle. This was the symbol that we needed. I had snatched it the other day once Danny and I were on our scorpion-killing spree.

"Wow," Valerie said, taking it from me and inspecting it as it lay on her palm. "So our plan now is to find that cave and place this thing on this podium and the dinosaurs and skeletons disappear. That's it, right?"

"Not quite," Tucker said, making us all snap our attention back to him. "It also says that the cave can only be opened once a month and only a female can do it."

"What?" Dash said, completely taking aback by the rule. "Why is it specific that a girl does it?"

Kwan shrugged. "Maybe they want to make it harder on us."

I was offended by that. "Hey, now, don't you go insulting the female gender. Must I remind you who gut us the symbol?"

Dash and Kwan looked uncomfortable. Well, they should, considering they were about to get insulted orally by a girl. "You did," Dash said, completely not pleased about it.

Valerie, clearly on my side, also said, "And who here knows martial arts and self defense that saved us from that skeleton?"

Kwan shifted uncomfortably. "You."

"Oh, and who has the most charming good looks that kept you from going blind?" Paulina said, clearly wanting to join our little fight – and failing to make us rise in their minds – her hands on her hips, with Star pursing her lips. Valerie and I rolled our eyes in exasperation, and I sighed.

"Anyways, we can do this," I said. "All we need to do is find that cave – wherever it is."

I was followed by cheers of us finally getting off this island, arguing from the guys, and a smile at my optimism from Danny. I was about to smile back, but then, I heard this low rumble. He frowned, obviously having heard it too. The others were still oblivious to that, arguing and yelling at each other. At that moment, everything seemed silent but that small rumbling. Danny and I looked around in alarm, thinking any of the monsters may be there. But we found nothing. The noise started getting louder, and that was when everybody shut up. They all looked around too; trying to see what was the cause of this noise. Then I felt something shake beneath my feet, as if an earthquake was taking place. I looked down at the ground, and then I saw what the noise was.

The ground was splitting right beneath our feet.

Damn this stupid Cursed Island.

* * *

**A/N: **MWWWAAAHAHAHAHAHAA! I'M EVIL! What do you think? Was it bad? Awful? Terrible? Maybe even STUPID! *Gasps* TELL ME! And just like the other chapter, review please! Make me smile! XD

Peace Out!


	11. Of Underground Caves & Skeleton Armies

**Author's Note: **Hey! God, I am SOOOO sorry I haven't updated, it's just that I had stupid monthly exams and then I was sick and then I had writer's block and then - y'know what, let's just say that I was busy instead of babbling all over the place *Smiles sheepishly*

Anyways, I just REALLY wanted to update because I will literally not have ANY time this month! I have mid-year exams, and, it's time to hit the stupid books.. *Grumbles angrily* But a HUGE shout out to my reviewers, you are AWESOME! Your reviews really make my day and are what inspire me to keep on writing. You guys rock XD

**Disclaimer: **Can't I just say that I don't own a high IQ in Math? No? Aww! I don't own DP - or a high IQ in Math.. :P

* * *

_Chapter 11_

_Of Underground Caves & Skeleton Armies_

_Clearing, Woods, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

Oh.

Shit.

Okay, I cussed, so what? At this point, cussing is the least of my problems. My current problem is that we are stuck in this island – which is, by the way, cursed – only me or Valerie can save us – yeah, I'm not going to mention the two divas – and, oh yeah, the ground underneath us was splitting apart. Damn the day I set foot on that stupid ship

I hate my mom.

"Holy shit," Dash cussed – see? I wasn't the only one cussing – as the ground started vibrating under us, making us shake with it. "What the hell is this?"

Rocks splattered from the ground, hitting who-knows-what under the ground. The ground started cutting itself, slipping away from the middle of the clearing – where we were standing. Paulina let out a scream as the ground disappeared from underneath us, sending us down, down. The air rushed past our screaming bodies, and the adrenalin burned through my veins. I jumped off of high places before too, but this was entirely different. After a long, agonizing scary fall, I started seeing something dark underneath us. I knew instantly that it was the ground, and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the painful impact.

And damn, did it hurt.

We all crashed on the ground – that seemed to be covered in grey sand, rolling over the small hill that it formed. We were all crashing against each other, and I felt so sore from the force of the fall. Once we stopped rolling and came to a halt, I breathed a sigh of relief, as my head was starting to lose the headache the rolling caused.

"I had just as much as a vacation as I can stand," I muttered, my eyes still closed as I rested my head on the ground. There was groaning and moaning everywhere, and I let out a grunt as I lifted my head off the ground. Okay, so maybe I still had that headache; but at least my muscles weren't hurting _too _much.

"That warning should've had a warning for _this_," Star said as all of us sat up. The place we were in was cave-like, with dark stone walls and grey sand on the ground. Rocks scattered all over the place, and particles of dust flew down from above, where a huge gaping hole was screaming 'Haha, you fell for it you losers!'. Light peered down from the hole, revealing the not-so-attractive cave we were in.

"Come on," Danny said, getting up and dusting off the sand from his clothes. "We've got to keep going if we want to get to that cave."

I got up as well, followed by Valerie. I frowned, remembering something. I went over to Valeria, and said, "Hey, where's the symbol, Val?"

She looked disturbed and dizzy, but nonetheless, she reached into her pockets and pulled out the symbol. I gave her a nod, and gestured for the others to start walking. (Wow, I seem to say the word 'walk' a lot.)

The cave wasn't as dark as I thought it would be. There were rays of light coming in from the huge gap we fell from – yeah, if this island was alive, it must hate us – lighting the direction we were walking. It was still dark enough that the sand appeared gray though. The walls had been started to narrow, allowing only two people at a time to walk through. As I was starting to think that this was maybe a tunnel – I have no idea how that's possible, though – I saw a glimmer of light ahead of us. Hoping that was our way out, we started walking faster, faster, and the light kept increasing once we got closer. Finally, the light became too bright for our eyes, and I had to shield them as I crossed what seemed to be the exit. Once I unshielded my eyes, we were in the middle of a – guess what – desert.

Really. A desert. Beyond us was sand – and thank God it was back to its gold color – that stretched out to who-knows-where. The sun was blazing in the sky, making the weather suddenly very, very hot. The sand beneath us was starting to grow hotter and hotter, bringing heat to our already blistered feet. Well, hell. Who saw that one coming?

"Okay," Tucker finally spoke, breaking the silence. "This is officially weird."

I blew the hair that fell on my face. "Yeah, no kidding." I looked around, thinking that maybe if I squinted hard enough against the light I might see a flat white paper that would explain to us that this was all a movie set and we were being pranked on a really mean reality show. As I suspected, all I saw was sand and sand and sand. "What now?"

Danny shrugged. "We keep moving. Maybe this is what will lead us to that cave where we could uncurse the curse."

"Well, that kinda makes sense," Paulina muttered, still shaken up by the fall. I don't blame her, though. I was glad that the sand had been thick as snow to hold our fall or else we would've had a million broken limbs. "I mean, this is like a movie I saw once. Everything led the people to another, and maybe that warning gave us a piece of information that we could use. I think whoever is in charge of this place is actually _helping _us."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, so the dickhead who controls this island was helping us when he/she dropped a bomb of dinosaurs, giant scorpions and skeletons on us?"

She paused, and then Dash spoke. "You know, this is all starting to seem like a videogame. We had to get through each level to go to the other, and in every videogame every level has difficulties. If it didn't, than it wouldn't be a very successful and fun game."

"Yeah, Dash, I know," I said, remembering that I used to like _Doom _because it had all these difficulties and that it would be boring without them. "But this isn't a videogame. This is real life. If we, let's say, die, we don't gain extra lives and get stronger. We just die. Period."

"Well, what if we don't?" Paulina asked. "What if we stay alive and keep going. Do we have to follow the oldest rules in the book and do all of that crappy wilderness survival stuff?"

"No," I said, starting to get impatient. "We are not following the rules of the book. We're following the rules of my book, that's called 'Stay Alive and Worry Later'."

"Well, that seems like a pretty stupid book to me," Dash grumbled.

"Okay, I'm starting to get a headache," Star said, rubbing her fingers over her temples. "Is this a videogame or a book or not?"

"No, it is not," I said, starting to get really pissed. "This is real. We are really here. There is no book and no videogame, Okay? Are we all on the same page now?"

"Whoa, whoa, wait, there's a page?" Kwan asked, a horrified and confused look on his face. I stared at them in disbelief, getting really weary with them and their attitudes. "Really?" I asked, feeling myself getting really frustrated.

I turned to Danny, Tucker and Valerie for help, realizing that they hadn't spoken at all. In fact, they were staring in amusement at our little argument, not bothering to help me out at all. I grunted in frustration, and pulled Danny and Tucker by their arms. "Can we just get the hell out of here?"

They all sighed, and started walking after me. My God. Were they always this annoying? I mean, seriously, I was starting to get a headache myself, and I had a feeling my skull was going to explode from all the pressure pressed on it. And the heat was killing me, making sweat break from my forehead. My legs and feet were really starting to hurt me, and my headache was getting even worse.

"Hey," Danny said, squinting. "What's that?"

He pointed straight ahead, and I followed the direction of his finger. Squinting against the light, I saw something that wasn't, well, sand. At first it seemed like something grey and solid, and I thought it might be a newborn dinosaur, if they were even small – yeah, the Flinstones weren't going to help me this time. We all shared abrupt glances, and picked up our pace to get a better view. We also made sure we weren't making too much noise just in case it was an unwanted visitor. Once we got close enough to see what that gray thing was, it turned to out to be rocks. Really. Just a set of rocks, small and big, lined up together in the middle of the sand. There was a rock that was bigger than the others, and a few bamboo leaves were growing next to the rocks.

"A cave in the middle of nowhere…" Valerie's voice trailed off as we stared. She had a point with that. That huge rock that was in the middle was big enough to have an opening that might lead to a cave, and I really hoped that it was the cave we were looking for to get us the hell out of this island.

"Come on," Danny said as we started moving towards the rocks. They were lined in unorganized circles, and once we went to the back of the huge rock, I noticed some of the rocks lined as a circle around it, leaving an opening that helped us cross through. Other rocks were climbed up against Huge Rock, making an eerie glare of gray shout at us to turn back in our tracks and _not _even think about entering the cave. But, unfortunately, being the teenagers who were lost on a cursed island with really bad luck, we had no choice. We entered the small circle, and stood in front of Huge Rock.

"Okay," Star said, obviously trying to control over her fear, which wasn't so hard to notice. "If that's the cave, then how to we get in?"

I got the symbol out of my pocket, and searched the Huge Rock. Surely enough, there was a small circle carved into the side of the rock, and I looked down to find that the symbol was the exact same shape. I took my chances and pressed the symbol against the rock, waiting for everything to crumble down and ruin all of our hope. But, instead, we all took a surprised step back as the wall in the front of the rock started sliding to the side. We all gaped in surprise when we saw a small set of stairs leading down the cave, going to who knows where.

"Okay, I guess this is it," I said, stepping back into the circle. I saw Valerie chew on her lip, asking me, "Who do you think should go in?"

I looked from her to Danny, and I saw him nod at me. I gave Valerie a reassuring smile, and Danny and I started heading towards the eerie stairs that we were going to find out where it led.

"Wait, remember, Sam," Tucker said before Danny and I could take a step on the stairs. "You'll find what seems to be a podium, and a circle like the one on the rock. You should put the triquetra triangle there. And be sure that it will stay there."

I nodded at him reassuringly, and me and Danny started taking the steps into the dark cave. At first I thought it was going to be really, _really _scary and dark with bats and traps or something, so I sucked in a deep breath as Danny and I took the five steps of the stairs into the cave.

Just to gape in awe at what we saw in front of us. "Oh my Gosh…" I heard myself mumble. The scene I was preparing to find was totally different. It wasn't dark. There weren't bats. There weren't dead skeletons everywhere warning us to get back to where we came from. No, instead, the cave was small, not huge like the one in the _Incredibles _– yes, I am aware that I watch cartoons a lot. It was as small as a living room, with a high ceiling, and grey rock-like walls. At the end of the cave, there was a small stream – a stream! – and there were pink blossoms lining the stream so that it was only a line that led from one side of the cave to the other. In front of the stream was the podium Tucker had talked about, looking all tall and important and made of brown wood. The rest of the cave – like the entrance – had other rocks coming up and down, but leaving like a meter space between them and the podium where some of the water had leaked out of the stream with some of the blossoms' petals flowing with it, making a peaceful and beautiful scene. There was a set of stairs on the right side of the cave, leading down to the podium.

"Wow," Danny whispered. "That caught me completely off-guard."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, no kidding."

We headed towards the stairs, and slowly walked down on the water, careful not to trip and fall. We headed towards the podium, and now that I got to get a good look at it, it seemed strong and well-made, making it like those ones in banks and museums, that weren't easily destroyed. There was a small circular opening in the middle, with a carved triquetra triangle on it.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, I think Tucker said to place the triquetra triangle here…"

I pointed at the carved circle, and Danny said, "And that de-activates the curse?"

I nodded. "Yeah." I looked down at the symbol, and reached towards the podium to put it. Just as my hand was a few inches from the wood, Danny's hand found mine, causing me to look up at him in confusion.

"Wait, Sam," he said, holding my gaze. "No matter what else happens now, know this. This whole… adventure, has been…"

I grinned. "Thrilling. But I think we should just stick to the thrills of Amity Park."

"Only one thing thrills me there…" he spoke softly, his sentence trailing off. I felt my heart thump wildly in my chest, telling me that that was definitely a move. I took my chances and started leaning in on him, and surely enough, he was too. His lips were just a few inches from mine, when suddenly; I felt something hit me at the back of my head. The pain was horrible and shocking, and it sent me to the ground.

Then I blacked out.

* * *

_Cave, Lost Island_

_Normal POV_

Oh, for crap's sake!

They were _this _close. They were inches away from kissing, if it hadn't been for something hitting Sam on the head.

Wait, something hit Sam on the head?

"Sam!" Danny yelled in shock as she collapsed on the ground, unconscious. He bent down beside her to see where she was hit, and luckily, her head was fine. He quickly looked behind him, and saw, what other than a damn skeleton holding a rope-like thing that had some sort of a rock tied to the end. The skeleton was growling, his red eyes flashing bright, and Danny stood up and got a wooden stick that he noticed next to the podium for the first time. At first he kept on trying to hit the skeleton, but realized that the cave was too small for him to move around. So Danny jumped from rock to rock, leading the skeleton outside so they can fight.

Unknown to him, footsteps echoed through the cave as a figure in a dark cloak stepped in, stopping right in front of Sam's unconscious body. Bony hands bent down and took the triquetra triangle from the trailing water, leaving an unconscious Sam behind.

* * *

_Desert, Lost Island_

_Normal POV_

Danny hit the skeleton right between his chest and neck, knocking his skull off his body. The skeleton's body shuddered wildly until it turned into dust, and the skull remained where it was, only the red in its eyes dimmed until it had no more life in it.

Danny quickly stumbled around the rocks to get out and warn the others. "Guys! We have a problem," he said just as the others saw him. The others were about to ask what the problem was, when, out of nowhere, a group of skeletons jumped from behind the rocks, each one holding the same rope-thing that the first one was holding.

"Make that a hundred problems," Danny corrected as panic surged through the group.

"Good," Dash said as he got up from the rock he was sitting on, flexing his muscles. "I was beginning to feel a little stiff."

And with that, Danny and Dash launched at the skeletons, Danny hitting the bony figures with the stick, while Dash got out a rifle and started using it as a metal pole. Kwan, Tucker and Valerie were about to join them, when they saw Paulina and Star sitting on the rocks, trembling and squealing every once in a while.

Valerie, irritated by their stupid and useless attitudes, said, "You two gonna stay chickens your whole lives, or are you gonna help us?"

"The chicken idea sounds good right now," Paulina said as Danny smashed his stick into one of the skeleton's skulls.

"Come on," Kwan said, but a little more encouraging than irritated. "You can't stay afraid forever."

"I can," Star said in a small voice.

Tucker shrugged. "Okay, fine. You can stay here and not fight." The girls sighed in relief, but Tucker wasn't done yet. "_BUT, _you too, are gonna have to kiss me."

Their eyes opening wider and more terrified then they were when they say the dinosaurs, they quickly fumbled around the bags and each one got a rifle. "See ya," they both said, running towards the skeleton's a clumsily hitting them. Tucker and Valerie laughed as Kwan joined them.

"Good one," Valerie gave him a bump on the shoulder, and they both grabbed rifles and stepped into the battlefield.

* * *

_Cave, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

_Thud, thud, thud._

Damn, my head hurt like hell. What the hell happened back there? One minute I was inches away from kissing Danny, the next something hits me and then I lose consciousness. Okay, now this is _definitely _on the 'Weird Things Happening' list.

I opened my eyes, and remembered that I was still in the cave. Small lines of water were flowing underneath me, wetting me in some places. I slowly lifted my head off the ground and sat up, looking around anxiously. When I made sure that there was nothing and no one but me in the cave, I looked around on the ground to get the triquetra triangle stone and place it in the craved circle.

Then I realized that the symbol was nowhere to be found.

I panicked, dabbing my hands on the stone floor to make sure I hadn't gone temporarily blind and didn't see it. I crawled to places and felt around with my hand, only to come up with nothing. Zero.

"No, no, no!" I said aloud to myself. "This can't be happening!"

I kept on searching around, trying hard not to let the defeat and vulnerability I was feeling get to me and make me cry. I sat back down, feeling useless and helpless. I heard footsteps coming my way, but didn't even bother to look up until I heard Danny's voice.

"Sam?" he said, sitting on the ground next to me. "You okay?"

"It's gone," I said, closing my eyes and not looking at him.

"What?" he asked, clearly confused.

This time I turned to him, tears in my eyes. "The triquetra triangle stone. It's gone! That's it, game over."

My head sagged as I gave in and let the tears flow down my cheek. I felt Danny's arms go around me, pulling me into him. I rested my head against his chest, trying to calm myself down. "We're never gonna go back home now," I murmured so softly that I didn't even think Danny heard it. But by the way his arms tightened around me and pulling me closer told me he did.

"It's okay," he whispered soothingly, kissing the top of my head. "We'll find a way. I know we will."

* * *

**A/N: **DUN DUN DUUNNNN! All hope is lost for our poor group... What will happen now? I don't know! WHAT THE HELL IS GONNA HAPPE - Oh, wait, I DO know *Grins evilly* And if you wanna know too then press that little button down there and tell me how much you wanna know what's gonna happen! (Please let me note that guns and knives and/or anything sharp and pointy and lethal will be confiscated).

REVIEW! (Now, where's the pointy things?)


	12. A Journey Through The Unknown

**Author's Note:** READ!

Okay, I am EXTREMELY sorry for not updating when I should have! I know I promised that I would after the exams, and mine ended last Wednesday but I have a REALLY good excuse this time!

Okay, if any of you don't know, I live in Egypt, and if any of you had been watching the CNN or BBC for the past few days you'd understand what I mean. Well, I don't wanna babble but long story short, there were protests against our ministry and our son-of-a-&^%! president, and it got SO huge that they cut off the internet and mobile services from the entire COUNTRY and got the internet back only YESTERDAY. And to prove it was so big, the cops were so desperate that they _helped thieves escape from prison. _That was a complete BETRAYAL! I mean, at first we all thought that they were just thieves who were seizing the opportunity of no police availability, but they robbed two of our biggest malls, banks, clothing stores and burned down our banks and malls. Our country was literally on fire. God, I keep on praying that our f-ing president Hosney Mubarak would drop from his throne - whatever it's called - but yesterday there was a huge fight between the 'Against-Mubarak' people and the 'For-Mubarak' people. It was a battlefield in Tahrir Square. And now the asshole is saying that he's staying president for all those people who want him. That is bullshit, since if he opened his eyes for ONE SECOND he'd see that the people who want him were a thousand maximum, and the people who want his ass out of the country were about 8 MILLION. God.

Okay, I know I babbled again, but I just can't help it! *Smiles sheepishly* Anyways, I'd like to thank all of my reviewers! You guys rock! When I opened my e-mail - when the internet was still on - and saw about NINE reviews in one day I was on the verge of tears! I really appreciate it guys! XD

**Disclaimer: **I don't own DP - but I own the plot! - and I unfortunately don't own a large voice to get that president who just doesn't take a hint off of the presidential throne! Grrr...

* * *

_Chapter 12_

_A Journey Through The Unknown_

_Desert, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

"So, what now?"

Valerie spoke for the first time after what seemed like centuries. Danny and I had gotten out of the cave – that had closed almost the instant our feet were out – and had explained the whole thing to the others. Of course, they were shocked speechless, and hadn't spoken for about ten minutes.

Tucker shrugged, feeling helpless. "Nothing. What else can we do?"

"Yeah," Star said. "All hope to get off this island is gone. There's nothing we can do."

We sat in silence for a moment, all just trying to let everything that just happened sink in. But Star was right, no matter how hard I've been trying not to let happen: there was no hope. Zero. And for one second there I thought that not just hope was gone, but life too. I mean, if our hope was gone, so that means we die because we can't stay on this island or else we're dead.

A tingly feeling rose through my body as that thought circulated through my brain. I felt something vapor out of my body, as if something was being torn away. I looked down at my hand, where I most felt that tingly feeling, and guess what was happening.

My hand was turning into dust.

"Guys, we can't just give up," Danny said, snapping me out of my panic state. It only took me one good look at him to get just a smidge of hope back, and looking back down at my hand, it wasn't turning into dust.

Huh. Okay, now that is _definitely _one of the cruelest tricks of this island. I mean, seriously? It wasn't enough with the creatures and the skeletons, no, there still had to be hallucinations. Damn it.

Turning back my attention to Danny, I realized that there was still hope for him, he was clearly still optimistic – God, that's starting to be _really _annoying. Even though I had the same attitude I was still feeling a bit down. I mean, not only did I lose the triquetra triangle, but I also failed at another attempt in kissing Danny.

What? Stop staring at me like that! I know, I know, he's my best friend, I'm not supposed to feel this way, but I just can't help it! And, call me crazy, but I think that he actually might… like me too.

_Yeah, you're crazy._

Ugh, I hate it when my stupid/annoying conscious speaks up. Anyways, I have to stay focused on getting out of this place _first, _and then I'll think about me and Danny. Yeah, that's it. That's my new strategy.

"Yeah, I mean, there _has _to be another way out of here," Valerie said, clearly having the same motive and optimism as Danny. "I think we should just keep on walking and maybe, who knows, we'll find another prophecy like that one."

"Yeah," Tucker said, brightening up. "But next time, let's hope we're in the Land of Chocolate instead of the Land of Dryness."

I took a deep breath, switching into leader mode. "Okay. So now all we need is a new plan. We're currently in the middle of nowhere on the island, and let's just make our main target finding a place to stay for tonight so we could go back to searching for something tomorrow morning. We're all pretty much worn out, but we can't just sleep in a place where had just been attacked by an army of skeletons."

Paulina groaned. "Aw, no more walking, _please_."

"Come on," Kwan said as we all got up, helping Paulina and Star up, ignoring their complaints. We all carried a bag, and took a deep breath to steady ourselves as we started taking steps deeper into the desert.

Oh my God. How do nomads do this? It's all walking and wandering around with no goals and no places to go, searching for food and water and terms of survival. The sun was blazing – even though it was in the middle of the sky by now, almost ready to set – and sweat was breaking from my forehead. Now, I may sound like a city girl, but this is torture. Seriously. And the ironic thing is, I used to admire those people who would just set out on the road not knowing where they're going and what they might find. Man, I was even beginning to miss the _trees_. Seriously, I had it _that _bad.

"Are we there yet?" Paulina asked that same stupid annoying question again, groaning. I resisted the urge to turn around and slap her, because I just really, _really _wanted to hit something.

"We'll be there soon enough," Dash answered, smiling at her. I rolled my eyes, and started walking closer to Danny.

"Seriously, how much more walking are we gonna do?" I whispered to him. He sighed, shrugging. "Beats me," he said, looking straight ahead. "But, if we're lucky, we'll be able to find the woods again and hope that we find another way out."

"Yeah, I knew it wouldn't be that easy," I muttered, sighing.

"It's okay," he said comfortingly. "Just don't let the depression bring you down. Keep your head up, and just believe that there's still hope."

I grinned teasingly. "Wow. I never know Danny Fenton was deep."

He shrugged, returning the grin. "Guess you bring out the best in me."

I mock-punched him, chuckling. We walked in silence after that, praying that we'll find something, _anything. _Paulina and Star complained every once in a while, and of course, it was either my glares that shut them up, or Dash's smiles – bleh.

I was close to losing consciousness from all the tiredness when we heard a growl. Our heads jerked up in alarm, looking around fiercely. The sun was setting into the horizon, and colours of orange and blue and amethyst were lining the sky. If this wasn't a trip to hell, I'd be taking pictures.

Warning bells rang in my head when a scorpion emerged in the distance. It was one of those large ones, but this one was almost as big as a young lion, only bigger. It slowly walked over to us, and I could swear that Dash and Kwan and Tucker were trembling as much as the girls were.

Danny, always prepared, quickly snagged a rifle out of the backpack he was carrying, throwing one over to me. Valerie started zipping his bag slowly, getting out guns for the others, trying not to cause too much sound that would alarm the scorpion and make him attack. The scorpion merely walked towards us, slowly and calmly. My breath was starting to come out as deep gasps, and my heart was thudding in my chest, telling me to get the hell away from that thing.

Just as we were about take steps backwards, the scorpion launched itself at Danny, knocking him off his feet.

"Danny!" Tucker and I yelled in shock, and we both ran towards him. The scorpion was trying to prick his large hands onto Danny's head, but Danny's reflexes were way too fast for him. He was screaming at us to help, and Tucker and I, along with Valerie, were the first ones to step onto the scorpion and grab his tail and dragged him off Danny.

Scorpio jumped from our grasp, sending us to the ground. Dash and Kwan took a try in trying to shoot the crap out of it, but it was too fast and was able to dodge the bullets. Its pointy hands grabbed onto the Dash's feet, and Dash screamed in pain, dropping to the ground. Kwan was down beside him in an instant, shooting his gun at Scorpio. The scorpion took the hint and let go of Dash just as me, Danny, Valerie and Tucker were pulling ourselves to our feet. Scorpio was now in front of Paulina and Star, who were holding their guns in front of them protectively, their hands trembling.

"Shoot!" I demanded when they just stood there, their hands merely resting on the trigger. "God, what are you waiting for? Kill the Goddamn thing!"

Paulina pressed the trigger, but, being the coward she is, her hand had been trembling too hard to stay on Scorpio, so instead, she aimed it away from the scorpion. The bullet, instead of going into the scorpion's backbone, went into –

"Holy crap!" Valerie yelled as the bullet made contact with her right thigh, sending her to the ground. "Shit Paulina!"

Paulina's eyes widened, and before she could direct a bullet at me, Danny and I quickly pressed the trigger on our rifles and killed Scorpio. We were at Valerie's side in an instant, and Tucker was already leaning down on her. Star and Paulina rushed over, and Kwan helped Dash up and came next to us too.

She was crying. Damnit, Paulina made one of our toughest people cry by shooting her. I'm gonna need therapy for this.

"Its okay, Valerie," Tucker said soothingly, rubbing her arm as she pressed tightly against where the bullet hit. Danny quickly took off her backpack and got out the First Aid Kit, and turned back to us.

"Does anyone know how to treat a bullet wound?" he asked, searching from face to face.

Tucker, of course, was the one we needed. "I read it on Google once when me and my dad were going out to this camping trip and decided to be ready. So, yeah, I know how to."

He left Valerie's side to stand on her right, telling her to let go of her leg and straighten it. He examined the wound slowly while Valerie tried calming herself down and baring the pain.

"Okay," he said in a doctor voice. "I don't think the bullet's too deep. But we're going to have to try and dig it out of your leg so it doesn't get infected."

Valerie's breathing sped up, but she nodded anyways. "Just get it over with," she said weakly.

Tucker turned to me and Danny. "Okay, you guys go stand on both of Valerie's sides and take her hands so she can squeeze. This is going to be a bit painful."

Danny and I nodded, and made our way to stand beside Valerie. I took her hand in mine, and before Tucker had even begun, she was squeezing from the fear. Tucker opened the little box, and got out a bandage, a pocket knife, some cotton, a deerskin container of whiskey, and a lighter (we had stuffed all of that stuff in there so we were sure that it won't fall out of our pockets).

Tucker washed the small cotton with the whiskey, and dabbed it lightly on Valerie's wound. She winced slightly at the sudden contact, but then I felt her force herself to relax and take deep breaths.

Tucker then got out the pocket knife, and said, "Okay Valerie, this is liable to hurt like nothing you've ever felt before, but don't give up. I'll try to get it out as fast as I can, but I don't promise you that it won't hurt."

She nodded, closing her eyes. "Okay. I'll try not to scream."

Tucker took a deep breath, and started digging into her tight with the tip of the knife. Valerie's hands squeezed so hard on mine that I thought _I _was going to scream. But what surprised me was that Valerie was actually trying _not _to scream, only taking ragged gasps. I didn't understand it, since right now, screaming was actually healthy.

"Valerie, scream," I said, pressing back the pressure on her hand. "Just scream."

And she did. She started screaming loudly, and I was seconds away from screaming with her. Her legs were about to thrash around, when Danny yelled, "Dash, Kwan, take a hold of her legs."

Dash and Kwan did so, and needed a little help from the other girls so they could steady her legs. I sensed Valerie trying to stop thrashing around, and yelled at Tucker to hurry. It was almost like I could feel her pain.

After ten agonizing seconds, Tucker's face, which had been twisted in agony for hurting Valerie, brightened up as he reached his hand and lifted something from Valerie's thigh. Valerie sighed in relief, and her squeezing on my hand loosened up a bit. Tucker put down the knife, and lifted his hand up so all of us could see.

There, right between his thumb and index finger was something black, covered in dark red blood. The blood was trailing along Tucker's hand, and we all gaped.

"Well," Tucker said after throwing away the blood-tinned bullet. "That was disturbing."

He got the light and the knife, and said, "Now, we're going to need to try and close the cut, and unfortunately, I can't sew your skin together." He lit up the lighter, and put the knife right above it. "But what I can is, I can run this hot knife over the wound and it'll heal itself through time."

Valerie took a deep breath. Tucker examined the knife as it turned almost red from the heat, and turned off the lighter. Valerie's breath caught as Tucker placed the burning metal onto her wound, and I watched in awe as the cut seemed to visible close a bit. After placing it there for a few seconds with Valerie clenching her teeth to keep her mouth shut and not scream again, Tucker took the knife off her thigh when it started losing its thermal energy.

"Well, that autta do it," Tucker muttered, mostly to himself. He then got the bandage, and started wrapping it a few times around the wound, and then secured it tightly. Valerie had stopped crying, and was starting to calm down a bit.

I grinned at Tucker. "Wow, Tuck. For a person who hates hospitals, you sure make a good doctor."

He shrugged. "I had to be prepared so I can treat myself instead of letting some dude I don't know in a white coat stick a knife into my leg."

Valerie chuckled a bit, and let go of our hands. "Thank you, Tucker," she said, smiling at him. "I don't know what I would've done without you."

Tucker smiled back, and I resisted the urge to gag. Okay, okay, I know I was getting a bit jealous that Tucker is starting to get through with _his _love life while mine just burns in the hot sun of failure.

"Okay, guys," Kwan said, snapping our attention. "Since you're done with Val, think you can help me and Dash for a sec?"

Noticing that Dash was gripping his foot for the first time, Tucker and Paulina and Star went over to him. I completely forgot that the scorpion had attacked his foot when he was trying to shoot it. There were about five or six scratches on his foot, right above his ankle, and there was a small amount of blood oozing out. I'm not sure it hurts as much as a bullet to the thigh does, but it does seem to sting a bit.

"Alright," Tucker said, grabbing the first aid kit. "Dash, you have two choices. The first, you can let me rub your foot in alcohol so it doesn't get infected, and then just wrap it up and let it heal on its own. _Or, _I can do the quicker treatment, which is to rub a hot knife on them so they can heal."

Dash's eyes got wide when Tucker said 'hot' and 'knife'. "I like the first choice better," Dash said, nodding at Tucker and trying to hide the horrified look on his face. Wow, it was kinda weird actually if I put myself in his shoes. You're a Quarterback; you suffer from football injuries and have rock-hard muscles, yet you're afraid of one hot blaze? Oh, and let's not forget the fact that the Techno-geek you've been picking on for the past 5 years is now your doctor. Shudder.

Tucker dabbed the cotton he poured whiskey on along Dash's cuts, and I noticed that that move hurt him – and that Tucker was sorta enjoying it too. Tuck then wrapped the gauze around his foot, and was done in a minute.

"Damn, you work fast!" Paulina said, moving over to Dash. I rolled my eyes, glad that we were done with one injured partner – again, shudder.

Tucker turned to Valerie again, and got up to crouch right beside me. "Think you can walk from here?"

Danny and I took that as a cue to try and help her get to her feet. She wasn't that heavy to pull up, but it wasn't that easy to pull her up either. Once she had her weight supported by her legs, I felt her start to fall down again, but Danny and I had a good grip on her and were able to set her down on the floor gently. She shook her head at Tucker, muttering a small, "No."

I sighed. "Okay. Now we're gonna have to try and find something that can support your weight."

"Yeah, we can do that," Danny said thoughtfully. "But we need wood, and we're in the middle of a desert with no end."

"Guys," Paulina said, trying to get our attention.

I rolled my eyes, and dismissed her. "Not now Paulina. We're trying to find out how to design a wood-like stick to help Valerie walk – something like a crutch."

"Maybe we can dig for it?" Tucker suggested, earning looks from us. "What? It was a suggestion."

"Guys," Star said, echoing Paulina.

"Not now," Danny said in annoyance. "Hm, maybe we could, I don't know, share shifts in carrying her?"

"Oh, for the love of – " Paulina actually got up from where she was sitting next to a gaping Dash to come over to me and Danny. "Look at _that_."

I was about to yell at her to back off, when she took me and Danny's heads and turned them around. My yells were stuffed down my own throat when I saw what was in front of me.

There were trees.

Seriously. Just like that. One minute we're heading off to an endless sand-infested desert, and the second trees and bushes and mud and _trees _appear in front of us. Okay, even though that was perfectly convenient, I was beginning to feel a bit ooky about how things appear then disappear then appear again in this place.

"Okay," Kwan said, speaking after a few moments of shocked silence. "Now I am officially confused."

"I was officially confused since we first saw a dinosaur," Star said, shrugging.

Paulina bit her lip. "Isn't it kinda weird though that when we needed wood the forest just appeared in front of us like that?"

"Yeah," Danny said, getting up. "But we're gonna have to worry about that later, and help Valerie first."

I got up too, and shot the jocks and cheerleaders a look. "You guys stay here with Valerie and me and Danny and Tuck will go try and find some wood."

They all nodded, not really in the mood for arguing with me since one of us got hurt and it was one of us who hurt her. Man, if I had to choose between wearing one of my mom's pink and frilly dresses over being stuck on this island that has dinosaurs and skeletons, I'd take the dress in a heartbeat.

We headed towards the trees, and started searching for a suitable tree that we can get wood off easily. Well, I would bet that the search would be harder than the cutting, because once me and Danny tried to cut a branch; it was as if we were pulling on someone's arm. We let go and looked at each other, trying to hatch a plan. I sighed, looking back at the branch. Okay, so we need a wooden stick/pole that was thick and strong enough to support a weight of a 17 year old girl, devoid of knots or grains or leaves, and made of sturdy wood. Man, this was going to be a _long _night. I mean, we already found the damn branch we need but it wouldn't budge. Can things get any worse?

"Okay," Tucker said, moving in front of the branch. "I've got an idea."

With that, he ran back to where the others were, grabbed the alcohol, and ran back to us. He started pouring some alcohol on his hand, and then started dabbing it on the branch we set our eyes for. After a few seconds of me and Danny looking at him questioningly, I finally said, "What are you doing?"

"The alcohol softens it up," Tucker said as a matter-of-factly. He then turned to us, and added, "Or at least that's what I've read on Wikipedia."

After a few minutes of alcohol-rubbing, Tucker handed the bottle over to me, and signaled Danny to pull with him. And, sure enough, the branch started slipping out, and after almost five agonizing minutes of watching Danny and Tucker pull – and eventually started pulling with them – the branch finally got off, sending us backwards. Okay, I am starting to think that we fall _a lot _here.

"Okay," Tucker said, as we sat up and placed the branch between us. Well, first we gotta cut the sharp edges before doing anything else."

"And then we try to measure Valerie's height to fit to the height of the crutch," Danny continued.

"And then we attach the hand on the top to it and the arms to support it," I finished. Danny and Tucker nodded, and Tucker said, "Okay, I'm gonna go and try and find a way to measure Valerie's height, and you see if this is a good branch or not."

Danny and I nodded as he grabbed the whiskey bottle and started heading towards the others. I held the tall and thick wood, and started examining it.

"Okay, so it's strong enough to carry her," Danny said, getting up and trying to jump on it or something. "Or so to speak."

I rolled my eyes, and examined it more. "And it's not twisted or creaked or anything, so it might be balanced to walk around on this. Of course, we're going to have to crave the unnecessary bark off so it's not too thick for Valerie to walk on," I said, using up all the things that internet and TV have taught me. And parents thought it was a waste of time.

Danny chuckled a bit. "You seem to know a lot about this stuff," he stated, holding my eyes with his.

I shrugged, captivated by his deep blue eyes. "I guess I watch survival stuff on TV too much."

Danny chuckled again, and rested his elbow on the top of the branch, only to pull it back half a second later, saying an 'ow'. I couldn't resist laughing at that, since Danny was careless enough to put his arm on the sharp edges. He was rubbing he elbow where he rested it, looking at the branch hatefully.

"Hey, it's your fault you don't look where you put your arm," I said, trying hard not to laugh.

"Well, it's not _my _fault you have such pretty eyes," he said in annoyance, but, right there and right then, I felt my heart beat like an 808 drum, and his look of annoyance drifted off as I gazed back into his eyes.

I grinned. "You have pretty eyes too."

I don't know whether he was gonna try and kiss me again, because Tucker came bursting in right at that moment, so Danny and I had to break contact. I have got only one thing to say about this.

_Damn it_.

This is happening _a lot _lately, and I don't know whether I like the fact that Danny is actually _flirting _with me in a non-friendship way, or hating the fact that whenever we were getting deep and having a moment, something comes and ruins it. God, what was my plan again? Oh right, worry about Danny and me later, and Valerie first now.

"Okay," Tucker said, looking at the stick up and down. He traced his hand along the stick, and landed just under the sharp edges by a few inches. "So, we cut it here, and try to make sure that the edges aren't so sharp too."

We set the stick down on the ground, and Danny got out his pocket knife. We all knelt down, and took turns in cutting it carefully and thoroughly so that the edge wouldn't come up sharp. After almost ten or fifteen minutes of cutting, the sharp edges were finally off, and was had a tall stick like the ones you see those animals burning as firewood in Winnie the Pooh – hey, it was the first thing that popped into my head. Anyways, it looked suitable enough not to hurt, and Tucker and I got out pocket knives' of our own. We started carving out the unnecessary bark off the bark off the thing, and that took us twenty more minutes just to get right. Now, it wasn't as fat and thick as it was but was thin enough to be able to support Valerie's weight.

"Okay, that should do it," Tucker said, as we sat up and sighed. "Now we need almost a diameter of 1-11/2 inches, that should do it."

I was about to make a comment on how Tucker reads WAY too much Encyclopedia, when Danny got up and got some of the cut wood. "We could make the arm of the crutch out of these," he suggested, and we got to work to do the _same _thing all over again, except we cut it and measured it under our arms so we can make the suitable size. After doing that, we all sat around the stick and the arm, wondering what it is we were missing.

My brain started rolling with an idea. "Tucker," I said, gesturing for him to come closer. "Let me see your t-shirt."

He was wearing a blue long-sleeved t-shirt that was made out of strong and thick material, and I doubted it was his. I took hold of his sleeve, and started pulling it apart. I was successful in cutting off bits of the sleeve, acquiring three long threads of the material, leaving Tucker's sleeve to reach his shoulder.

Tucker made a face. "Dash won't be happy to know his shirt was slaughtered to death."

I rolled my eyes, and got the stick and the fabric. Knowing where I was hinting at, Danny got up and sat right in front of me. He got the arm and put it at the top, and held the stick securely in a bending position so I could work without standing up. I started gripping the fabric and tying it around the arm, and then circling it around the stick. I tied it around the stick in a secure bow. I got the other two fabrics and did the same thing, making sure it wouldn't come off. This took about ten minutes or so, with Tucker and Danny taking turns to tying other fabric we cut off of Tuck's shirt around the thing. After we were done, we held the stick up, and I guess we didn't do such a bad job.

I smiled in pride at what we accomplished, and said, "The others have got to see this."

We all headed towards the others, who were about close enough to falling asleep. It was then that I realized we might have spent at least 2 hours or so building that thing. When they saw us coming, their heads snapped up, and then their eyes widened in awe.

"Ta-da," Danny said, flashing it around in front of us. I rolled my eyes and snatched it from him, heading towards Valerie. She was smiling at the crutch, and Tucker and Danny started helping her up, once she was on her feet, I gave her the crutch to hold under her arms. She clutched it tightly and tried supporting her weight on the crutch instead of her right leg. Danny and Tucker let go, but stayed close enough if she stumbled over. Valerie tried taking a few steps forward, and the crutch actually worked.

Damn, we are _good_ at this thing.

She turned to us with a smile on her face. "Thank you," she whispered. Wow, if anyone ever told me Valerie would be grateful and fragile, I would've laughed at them. But, well, I guess this island can make the impossible happen.

_Like Danny flirting with you…_

God, shut up already!

"Okay, since we're close to the woods now, maybe we should stay here and rest for the night," Danny said, snapping me out of my crazy fight with myself. We set the backpacks down on the ground, and I got out a few clothes and laid it out on the sand. Paulina and Star would've argued about their 'expensive designer clothes getting dirty', but I guess they were just too tired to say anything. Valerie set her head on some clothes – with Tucker beside her, of course – and set the crutch down on the sand beside her. The others took a few clothes and rested their heads, and Danny and I took a corner to ourselves. I rested my head on the clothes, and looked up at the stars, my mind drifting off.

"'Night, Sammy," Danny said, his eyes closed. I could almost make out his face smiling at me in the darkness.

I smiled as my eyes closed and my head drifted off to blackness.

I _knew _I slept for a few good amount of hours, because I had actually _dreamed_, which was sorta impossible under our condition. But this time it wasn't a dream about Danny or the island, it was about colors. Just colors, changing from orange to blue to purple to green to black, and then I saw the colors of the sunset, and the colors of the night sky. It was a good dream actually, better than waking up to skeletons and scorpions. I practically ordered my subconscious to stop focusing on the dream and focus on sleeping, and was about to drift off.

"Help us…" a hoarse voice whispered in my head, making me frown. "Please… Help…"

My eyes snapped open and I was staring into a half skull face and a half human face of a very familiar captain.

* * *

**A/N: **DUN-DUN-DUUNNN! Cliffie! I'm EVIL! XD I wasn't planning on getting Valerie shot, but my hands know what they're doing when they write on that keyboard! Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter and I hope it makes up for the long wait - it took almost 11-12 pages on Word! - and, yeah, what am I forgetting? Oh, right!

REVIEW! XD ... Please?


	13. From Friends To Strangers

**Author's Note: **Olo! XD Hey, I'm back with another chapter! I'm particularly excited because it's been almost a week or two since I last updated, and not a month or two! XD What, it's kinda good that I'm getting a good hand of updating here! I mean, I've spent more than a year working on this, and I have the right to be excited to finally being just a tad close of finishing it!

Anyways, thanks to my awesome reviewers! You guys rock my world! Oh, and a note, I know some people were confused about the whole prophecy thing with the girls, and the answer is: my fingers just flow. I mean, I had NO idea how this story was going to go from the minute I started it, but I did know that it was going to bring out the best in Sam, and that's why these prophecies just come to me. So, yeah, it's like my fingers have a mind all their own, so if you wanna sue someone, it's my fingers!

Oh yeah, one last thing: My country's president, Hosney Mubarak, FINALLY STEPPED DOWN FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL THRONE! WOOOOHOOOO! *Throws a party for readers who probably have NO idea what's going on* It just happened like 5 minutes ago or something! You should see all of the protesters in Tahrir Square, they're waving flags and everybody's happy! YYAAAYYYY! I AM SO HAPPY! XD

**Disclaimer: **Me no own DP, but me own zis plot, so steal and say bye-bye to ur proper English *Smiles Evilly*

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_Chapter 13_

_From Friends To Strangers_

_Desert, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

I let out a gasp, and was about to let it out in a scream, when a hand covered my mouth. When I reached out to grip it off me, I realized that there was something off about the way it felt. Instead of fleshy and strong it felt –

It felt bony.

My mind took off screaming like a woman in a horror film who was about to be eaten by a monster, and adrenalin pumped into my blood. Warning bells rang dangerously in my head, repeating the words 'RunRunRunRUN!'. I seized the hand that was on my mouth and shot it off, sitting up quickly.

It was that face again. That face that shouted RUN, I'M A MONSTER, and the message was well-read. But yet, in those eyes, and in that other half of the face that was staring pleadingly at me. One half of that face was made of bones and was in a shape of a skull, no flesh, no skin, nothing. And the other half, the human half, looked like a _normal _human face, with lips and cheekbones and eyes. Oh, those eyes, those pleading eyes. You could recognize anyone through their eyes, and I recognized his.

He was the captain from the ship.

I quickly got to my feet, my head demanding me to wake the others up and get the hell outta here, but, of course, being the do-gooder that I am, I stayed and gazed back into those pleading eyes of the decomposing captain – oh God.

Around us were a lot of other half skeletons, half humans, and I was guessing that maybe these were the crew – or used to be. They all had the same agonized look in their eyes that would make any person weep. I turned back to the captain, and I could swear he seemed on the verge of crying.

"Please…" he whispered again in that hoarse and pain-filled voice of his. "Please, help us…"

I took a few steps closer to him, just to make sure it was really him. But, sure enough, when I looked at his human face, he had the same tanned skin, white beard, and brown eyes. The face that I'd scarcely spared a glance at, and now I felt like I've been staring at it for ages, and it was slowly fading away.

"Captain?" I asked, just to be sure.

He nodded, tears leaking out of his human eyes. "That was what I had been called – before this happened to me. Please, child, please help me."

"What-what happened to you?" I asked slowly, choosing my words carefully. He seemed to be gripping onto something as he opened his mouth to speak, maybe to try and keep his human half in tact just so he can talk to me for a little bit more.

"It's the island," he murmured, and he tried to catch his breath. "It's cursed and damned and–"

"Yeah, I know," I said, wanting to hear the important part of the story. "We figured it out."

"The cave, the stone… Did you?"

My heart sank with disappointment at the memory. "No, we tried to, but couldn't…" My mind instantly drifted back to his face. "What happened?"

"We fell through that hole," he looked as if he was struggling to talk. "We were attacked by vicious beasts."

"The dinosaurs and the scorpions? They attacked you?"

"Yes, some of us were killed because of it," he looked as if he was on the verge of tears again. "But that was real mercy compared to this."

"Who did this to you?" I asked, almost dying to know what the cause of this was so it wouldn't happen to us.

"When we fell through that hole, we realized that there was no hope for us… and then, we just started decomposing." He brought up his human-half hand, and I could almost see that it was slowly, carefully fading away into dust.

"There was no hope for you…" I started, my mind gripping on something. That time earlier today when I thought we had lost hope, I thought I saw my hand turn into dust. But then it disappeared when Danny said that there was still hope for us. I unconsciously looked back down at my hand, and sure enough, it was still intact and fleshy.

"Look, we thought there wasn't any hope for us, but we were wrong," the captain said, snapping my attention back to him. "Kid – "

"Sam," I said automatically, correcting him.

"Samantha, you must help us."

"How?"

"De-activate the Curse and save yourselves."

"Yeah, but how do we do that?" I asked in frustration. "The triquetra triangle is gone and the cave is closed… is there another way to de-activate the curse?"

"It was too late for us, but there's still a chance for you," he said, then suddenly he looked almost excited. "There's a Temple."

Of course, the word 'Temple' completely confused me and took my off guard, but I had my mind set on seeing where he was going and ask questions later. "Where?"

"An ancient Temple deep within the forest, there, you will find a key."

Okay, not _that _was confusing. "What key?"

The captain started explaining. "Centuries ago, this island was sort of a hiding place for a King. That king and his people were enemies to ancient Egyptians, and he sought out to kill the leader of the Egyptian army. He built a Temple here for worship, and often came here to hide when he felt was needed. But the Egyptians found the Temple and killed the King's army, and before they could kill the king, he cursed them and cursed the island. His body still lies in his Sacred Temple to this very day… and his curse still lives."

Things suddenly started making sense. "So all those skeletons, they weren't just other people who were on this island before us, they were that evil King's army, and they still live."

"Yes," the captain confirmed.

But something still didn't make much sense. "But what's this key?"

"Around the king's neck is the key that you may find," he explained. "And that is what you need to de-activate the curse. There's an opening to a volcano, and there, you must sacrifice the corpse of the King, but make sure you have the right key."

"Where do I put this key?"

"Near the symbol, the Heart."

Wait, what? "The Heart?"

He looked at me as if I should've already known. "Of Death."

Okay, now that was _really _getting annoying. These jigsaw puzzles are not going to help me figure out what's the _real _way of de-activating the curse. "Wait, what does that even mean–"

"We don't have much time," he said, looking around anxiously. "You must be quick, tomorrow midnight; the King's anger will be unleashed…"

"But wait, captain–"

Suddenly, his human face started disappearing slowly, and his flesh turned into nothing but bones, and everything human about him faded and turned into dust. The others, who were looking so agonized, faded into ash and left behind nothing by their bones. Oh, God, don't tell me.

They were decomposing, thus turning into those evil skeletons.

Suddenly, the captain's pleading eyes turned red as the eyeballs fell out and turned into dust. The space between the bones turned bright red, resending the adrenalin into my blood system and screaming RUN. As if my eyes were being tricked by the camouflage of it all, I thought I saw the triquetra triangle actually flash right on his chest before disappearing just as quick as it flashed. I backed away a bit, and, drawing in a deep breath, I screamed.

What? I couldn't help it. He was just looking at me in a very scary way that was freaking me out. Everyone snapped awake when I screamed of course, and the newly formed skeletons did not like that. In fact, one of them took hold of me from behind just as everyone was taking in what was happening. Almost everyone let out a scream in shock.

They all instantly got off their feet, grabbing anything that would help them kick some of the skeletons. Danny grabbed a rifle and ran over to me, smashing the rifle into the skeleton. He let go of me, and almost as abrupt as he let go of me, he started turning into dust. I had to let out a shocked and apologetic gasp as his eyes dimmed and the red color was gone, his skull turning into ash as it blended in with the gray sand.

The other skeletons – I'm sorry, _crew_ – looked around in panic. I caught the Skeleton-Captain's eyes in my gaze, and just for one moment, I thought I saw those pleading eyes again, as if he was just recognizing me. But, just as quickly as it was there, it was gone. He turned to the other skeletons, and sent out what seemed to be a signal for the others. They slowly started retreating, feeling threatened by out rifles.

Danny and Dash took a few steps after them, ready to follow them and kill them. "No," I said, rushing up to them. "Let them go."

I shared one last glance at the captain before he and his crew disappeared – and what was left of their humanity. My heart started calming down, returning to its normal heartbeat. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, and it took the others a few moments to calm down too.

"What were you doing, Sam?" Kwan asked, snapping my attention to him. I barely noticed that he had his eyes on my all this time. "It doesn't take that much time for someone to wake up, see the skeletons and scream."

My silence wasn't very reassuring. Everyone turned to me with suspicious looks, even Danny. "Sam," it was Tucker who first spoke. "Did you _talk _to those skeletons?"

"They weren't just skeletons, Tucker," I said. Taking a deep breath and praying they wouldn't panic that that was probably our fate, I said, "They were the ship's crew."

"_What_?" Star was the one who first yelled out in shock, and the others looked at me like I was crazy. I wouldn't blame them; I'm probably starting to doubt my sanity as well.

"Sam," Valerie said, using her crutch to take a few steps closer to us. "Are you sure that wasn't just some trick they were trying to play?"

"I'm one hundred percent sure, Val," I said confidently. "I'm not blind, I _know _what you saw. You saw decomposed bodies that are still living and walking around, zombies in skeleton form. But when I first saw them, I saw them as humans decomposing, asking my desperately for help. They were us in mid-decomposing."

"Okay," Danny said, sighing. "So it was the crew. But how did they decompose and we didn't?"

I thought about it for a moment. What _did _we have that the captain and the crew didn't? Okay, we had a female that could go into the cave, we had the triquetra triangle, we had the food and clothes and weapons… and we had hope.

"Hope…" I said, griping onto that word. It seemed that it only took one word that would make a difference. "When I was talking to the captain, he said that once he and the crew fell through that hole and realized that there was no way off this island, the lost hope… and then started turning into skeletons."

"What else did he tell you?" Paulina asked as we started to sit down on the sand. It may be gray, but it was still soft as regular sand – let's just hope that nothing bites me though.

"He said that there is still hope," I said, repeating his words over and over in my head. "There's another way off the island."

Excitement and relied surged through the entire group. It sizzled through us all like an electric shock that you could feel a mile away. "There is?" Tucker asked, excitement radiating from him. "What is it?"

"It has something to do with an ancient Temple and a king," I said, remembering bits and pieces of what the captain told me. "That the King who built this Temple was the one who cursed the Temple – along with the island – and the way to de-activate the curse was to find a key on his body, we sacrifice the corpse into the volcano, and then we place the key onto the Heart of Death."

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Dash said, interrupting me. "The Heart of _what_?"

I sighed in frustration of not knowing important stuff that I was supposed to know. "That, I don't know. When I asked what he meant, he looked around in alarm and said that we didn't have much time, that by tomorrow midnight the King will 'Unleash his anger'."

"'Unleash his anger?'" Star thought out loud. "What does _that _mean?"

Valerie sighed. "It means we get off our asses and go to that Temple and de-activate the curse."

"Or we're dead," Danny finished off, looking at me. I nodded, pursing my lips in frustration. "Yeah… Perfect," I muttered, sighing. We all looked at each other for a while, comprehending everything that just happened.

"So," Valerie said, looking serious and excited. "What are we waiting for?"

"Okay," I said, getting up and dusting the sand off my clothes. "First thing we should do is eat something; we got a lot of things to do."

"Yeah, no kidding," I heard Paulina murmur as we all sat in front of the bag where we kept all the food. Tucker and I got their first as it was right in front of us, and I zipped down the zipper of the bag to get out the food. But once the bag was open, an awful smell hit me. My brows furrowed in confusion, and I wondered what that revolting smell was.

Valerie sniffed from where she was sitting, resting her injured leg in front of her. "What is that God awful smell?"

I sniffed too – with my nose screaming at me to stop – and realized that the smell was coming from the bag. I opened the bag wide, and the smell started diffusing more and more. "Oh, no," I muttered to myself as I started digging into the contents of the bag. I stopped shuffling around when my hand hit something squishy and mud-feely. I dragged my hand slowly out of the bag, and found it covered in some black-brown-yellow mushy thing. "Crap."

Tucker narrowed his eyes at what was covering my hand. "I think that's a banana," he said, using his finger to sweep some of it on his own finger and putting it in his mouth. He pondered over the taste for half a second, and then made a gagging sound.

"Ew," he said, rubbing his tongue with his hand, trying to remove the taste from his mouth. "That is definitely not potassium-flavored."

"Well, it sure smells gross," Star said, scrunching her nose. "Wait, is _all _the food like that?"

My eyes widened, and dug into the bag once more. I pulled out almost anything that came in touch with my hand, and just like the squished banana, it was all ruined. Everything we were able to find was completely a waste, the bananas, the mangos, the coconuts; even the fish they packed was ruined.

"No," I said as I took in the sight of everything squished and ruined. "That was _all _of our food. And now it's gone, ruined."

We all slumped down on the sand in disappointed. Oh, we still had hope, so we were safe from decomposing right on the spot. What we didn't have, though, was food. And right now we _needed _food.

"Well," Paulina said, standing up. "It's a good thing we have woods here, right?"

"Yep," Dash said, getting up as we all did. Tucker and Danny helped Valerie get up while I got her the crutch. She gripped it tightly as I slipped it under her arm, and Tucker decided to stick back and help her. We all got the backpacks, and started headings towards the woods, hoping to find both the food and the Temple – hopefully we'll find the food fast.

And, sure enough, things were looking up to us. We had walked almost ten feet when I noticed something yellow from one of the trees. I called the others to stop walking, and gestured for the tree.

"Yes!" Kwan said, directing fake-punches to the sky as he jumped up and down in excitement. "Things are not looking so bad for us."

"Okay, make some space," Danny said, gesturing with his hand for us to back away. I backed away with the others, crossing my arms over my chest and looking at Danny in amusement. He held onto the bark of the tree, and lifted his feet to try and climb. He took a few lifts up and was successful to reach the bananas. Of course I knew that he would be able to climb successfully up the tree, but I _knew _that when he got up there he would realize –

"Hey guys," he said, looking down at us. "Would someone please tell me _how _I'm going to get the bananas without falling on my ass?"

I let out a laugh, as did everybody else who knew that this was coming – which was of course, Valerie. I headed towards Valerie, and said, "Hey, mind if I take the crutch for just a second, Val?"

Valerie nodded without hesitation, and Tucker was right there to support her weight just as I took the crutch from underneath her arm. I walked towards Danny, and shoved the crutch at him. "Use this to get the bananas," I told him as he took the crutch from me, looking confused.

He nodded, and started shoving the top of the crutch into the pack of bananas. Some of them started falling off the tree, and I dug into the food bag that Dash was carrying. I started throwing the ruined food on the ground so I can pull out the baskets that Valerie kinda braided together. I quickly ran back under the tree, and started picking up the bananas and putting them in the basket.

I looked back at the others, and they were looking boringly at me. I sighed in frustration, wishing that it had been Star or Paulina that had been shot, and not Valerie. "Hello?" I said, getting the A-Lister's attention. "You gonna help me here or what?"

Star rolled her eyes, but she and Kwan headed under the tree and helped me collect the bananas that were falling out. Once the basket was full, and turned to Danny and said, "That's enough, Dan, I think this might do."

He stopped the shoving, and held the crutch down to me. I got it, and handed it back to Valerie, who seemed to sigh in relief. Oh wait, that was Tucker. Come on, Valerie wasn't _that _heavy… I think…

"Okay," I said as Danny came back down on the ground with a _'thump'_. "So we're gonna have to eat this while we walk, since I don't think we have enough time to sit down and have a breakfast special. From the position of the sun, I think that it's the afternoon, almost 12 or 1 p.m."

I heard Dash cough, trying to cover up "Geek" as it slipped out of his mouth. I rolled my eyes and decided to me mature and ignore him. And let me tell you, it was _really _difficult.

I think we were walking for almost 3 hours or so when we heard a growl. We were kinda used to hearing growls by now so we didn't freak out that much when we heard the sudden noise. But the difference in this growl was that it didn't seem to be a hungry or angry growl, almost like it was a… pain filled growl. We all stopped walking when we comprehended that, frowning in confusion at each other.

"Maybe we should go see where that noise is coming from," Valerie whispered.

"_What_?" Paulina whispered back in astonishment. "And head into a dinosaur or a scorpion? Are you crazy?"

"Well, I wasn't the one who shot my partner," Valerie snapped back. I knew that she was obviously still extremely pissed at Paulina for shooting her, but I didn't think that it was the time to argue while our lives were at stake.

I turned to them in annoyance, and kinda whispered/hissed, "Would you two knock it off?" I said. "Now is absolutely not the time to argue about that, okay? Look, I know this is completely risky, but I think Valerie's right; we should go check out what that was."

Kwan, Star and Paulina were about to argue, when Dash said, looking all macho and brave, "Its okay, girls, I'll protect you."

I had to roll me eyes at that, and me and Danny – and all mighty Dash – took the lead in walking. We heard a few more growls – they were starting to sound like groans now, actually – and followed that. We were starting to get closer and closer to the sound – and Paulina and Star were starting to get wimpier and wimpier – and then suddenly I _knew _we were too close.

Once I felt that the noise was right in front of us, I sped up my pace a bit, and moved away a bunch of bushes. Man, let me tell you, there were _a lot _of bushes here. It was almost as if the trees were warning us to turn back in our tracks and not even think about going wherever it was we were going. But I continued walking anyway, not even trying to think about what might be in store for us behind all these bushes. Finally, the last bush was out of the way, and we stepped into a clearing.

A clearing with a dying dinosaur in the middle.

"Oh my God," Dash cried out loud. "A dinosaur! Mommy!"

He ran quickly behind us, and hid behind Tucker and Valerie. Even Paulina had to shake her head that that, muttering, "My hero…"

"Okay," Danny said, moving closer to me. "What do we do now?"

But my mind wasn't working. It wasn't focused on anything; not the whimpering Dash, the hesitant Valerie and Tucker, the gasping Star and Kwan, not even Danny. No, what I was focusing on was something that was emerging behind the dying Dino.

"Sam?" Danny asked when I didn't answer, shaking me a bit. "You still there?"

I slowly raised my hand up and pointed in front of me. "Look."

Everybody looked at me questioningly at first, but then when they looked to where I was pointing, they were all gaping, wide-eyed at what we saw.

"Is it…?" Valerie said in a low whisper that I barely heard her.

I nodded. "It's the Temple."

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**Author's Note: **Well, I would usually say my 'DUN-DUN-DUUNNNN' but I think some of you KINDA expected it... Okay, it's just me XD

Anyways, keep in mind that I don't know when I'm going to update the next chapter, but if you wanna sue my fingers, sue 'em after this is finished! It's their dream!

REVIEW!


	14. What Is It With This Place & Curses?

**Author's Note: **Olo! XD Hey there, peeps! SOORRYY for the late update, but writer's block's a bitch :P 'Nuff said.

And, school just started, so there's another excuse :D

**Disclaimer: **Me don't own this! :P

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_Chapter 14_

_What Is It With This Place And Curses?_

_Clearing, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

My head was getting dizzy from both shock and happiness and excitement and _shock._ I mean, there it was, right in front of us. The captain said that it was in the middle of the island, and that we had to find it and enter it and de-activate the curse before midnight. Well, it was almost like 4 p.m. right now and we found it. _We actually found it_. We found the Sacred Temple.

The Temple looked like any ancient Temple you might see in the movies. It looked like it was made of rocks, mostly like any cave you might see. Except that the rocks were as golden as the sand underneath us, and it looked like it was designed as an entryway – almost like the cave. There were carvings all over one of the pillars, and I was the first one to take the first steps beside the dinosaur to get to the Temple. It was a good twenty feet away from the dying dinosaur, so we didn't have to worry about anything. Not being able to hide their curiosity, the others followed, gaping at the Temple.

After almost ten minutes of silence, Kwan whispered, "Whoa…"

"Yeah," Danny said, nodding. "Whoa."

"So," Star said, shifting awkwardly. "Now what?"

Tucker stepped forward so he could take a look at the carvings on the pillars. "Now we read the latest prophecy to find out what is it we should do and _not _trust some skeleton zombie."

His gaze stared sharply at mine, but all I did was shrug, playing innocent. He rolled his eyes at me, and then turned back to the pillars. There were carvings all over the place, but Tucker, being the geek he was, was able to read it without trouble.

Tracing the foreign words with his fingertips, he read, "'The Sacred Temple is one of two choices to de-activate the Curse. The sacrifices are lives of the living and the dead, as there will be who will have fatal injuries…'"

His words trailed off, and he gulped. I was still too sucked in though, and urged him to keep reading.

"'The Curse is deactivated by sacrificing the King's corpse into the raging volcano, and placing the Key into the Heart of Death.'"

I hated interrupting him, but I just couldn't let the opportunity of rubbing it in his face slip. "I hate to say I told you so," I said, shrugging innocently as I made a face. "But that's exactly what the captain told me."

Valerie rolled her eyes on me, and turned to Tucker. "Ignore her and just keep reading," she said.

Tucker turned back to the pillar. "'The Curse's deactivation will be declared as everything will turn into dust. But the sacrifices are much more fatal than injuries, for no one has entered the Temple and got out alive…'"

Okay, I know I was kinda optimistic about our chances of actually making it, but now… not so much. I mean, I _knew _it wouldn't be as easy as just entering the cave, getting whatever key and whatever corpse and throwing it into the volcano and placing the key into the Heart of Death – whatever that is. But _this_… this was different. I mean, we had two choices, and both of them included dying.

Choice no. 1: we could either go inside the Temple, do as the prophecy says and deactivate the curse, but get ourselves killed in the process. And there also might be the chance that we _won't _deactivate the curse and just die trying.

Choice no. 2: we could just stay in the island and do all those regular survival things – plus the dinosaurs and scorpions and skeletons – but wait as our fate and reality catch up with us and kill us. God, _God, _how did things turn out this way?

And I knew that Choice no. 1 would be our choice.

I sighed, and turned to the others. "We have to get in there. It's the only way to deactivate the curse."

"Sam, this is _crazy_! You heard the prophecy yourself, no one entered and lived," Tucker said, looking at me as if I was some sort of nutcase who just escaped the Mental Hospital.

"Yeah," Paulina joined in, a horrorstruck look on her face. "Are you implying that we _die_ doing nothing?"

"No," I snapped. "I'm implying that if we do die, then we die trying to deactivate the curse and not just sitting around and let the curse deactivate us."

"You are crazy," Tucker repeated at me. "_Crazy_." I crossed my arms over my chest in determination. Tucker turned to Danny, thinking that he could bring me down by my weakness. Ugh, traitor. "Danny, tell her she's crazy."

Danny turned to me, but not with the same look almost everybody had. Softly, he said, "You're crazy."

By the tone of his voice I could tell that he was on my side. I grinned thankfully at him as we locked gazes. Tucker, getting what was happening, slapped his palm onto his forehead in frustration.

"So," I said, breaking eye contact with Danny to look at the others. "That's one. Any other person who would like to die trying instead of chickening out?"

The others shared awkward glances at each other, as if sending messages through their eyes. Valerie said, and used her crutch to walk over next to me and Danny. "I'm in. Life wasn't all that great, anyway."

I couldn't help but give her a thankful smile. Who knew that out of all the girls that I might end up liking it would be Valerie, the one who tried stealing Danny from me? Okay, well not technically _steal_, or from _me, _or _tried_… But, uh, oh, you know what I mean.

"Okay," Danny said. "That's three of us. "Anyone else?"

Danny and I specifically directed our gazes – well, most likely glares – at Tucker, warning him that if he doesn't come over here he would be very sorry. Tucker sighed, looked down on the ground and then trudged over to us. "Alright, alright," he said as he was by my side. "I'm in too."

We looked up at the others, who were sharing worried glances. I knew what they were probably thinking right now: Dash would be thinking, _I can't die, I have a football scholarship and a wide future, and besides, all the girls back home would be devastated if I died._

Paulina: _Okay, I know I liked watching movies like Indiana Jones and stuff, but I didn't think that stuff was _real_. I mean, I'm too pretty to die, right?_

Kwan: _Okay, I know I should be going into that Temple, but I can't afford losing my spot in the A-list. _Again.

Star: _No, no, no, I'm too young and far too pretty to die! Everybody would totally flip out if they knew I died. No, no. _

I rolled my eyes at them. They were fidgeting with their feet and looking on the ground awkwardly. I felt Valerie shrug beside me, and say, "Okay, that's four of us. We'll go in, and you guys can enjoy the company of that dinosaur over there." She started walking to the entrance of the Temple, with me and the guys trailing behind her. "Tell me whether it's a boy or a girl."

I had to hold back my laughter when the others shared horrified glances at each other and ran towards us. "Who needs to be alive anyway?" Star said, her voice cracking nervously. "Come on, let's go."

"Wait," Tucker said, making us look at him in confusion. He held up his finger in a 'one second' gesture, and made his way to the dying dinosaur. Before anyone could stop him, he stood in front of the dinosaur's head, and lifted his hand to touch its forehead.

"Tucker!" Dash hissed. "What are you doing?"

Instead of running back to us in fear of both Dash and the dinosaur, he just waved his hand annoyingly at the jock, and lifted something off the dinosaur's forehead. We all stood still and silently, waiting to see if the dinosaur was going to get up and throw a tantrum. But, once Tucker lifted a circular thing from its forehead, it stayed absolutely still. The dying dinosaur was dead.

Tucker got back up and showed us what he had removed. "I think I might know what the key is," he said as I recognized the symbol of the triquetra triangle in his hand.

I had a feeling we're gonna need that," Danny said, grinning at Tuck as he made his way back to us. We all turned back to the door, and I took a deep breath.

We pushed open the stone-like doorway and entered the infamous Temple. Once we were all in, I was completely taken aback by it. There was a bridge that led forward, and into another one of those doors with the same carvings like the outside. The walls were all stone-like, but instead of gray-colored like the cave, they were beige. Underneath the wide wooden bridge, was a hole of black nothingness. There were lanterns held every few meters on the walls, lighting the way forward.

Okay, I'll admit I was taken aback, just like I was at the cave. I seriously thought there'd be dungeons and gargoyles and dead bodies everywhere. Instead, it looked like one of those scenes you'd see out of a Harry Potter movie.

I took a deep breath, and followed Danny as he led the way towards the bridge. It was held by strong-looking ropes, but the wood seemed fragile if huge weight was added to it. There was a space of at least ten-to-twenty centimeters between every piece of wood, which told me that Valerie would find a lot of difficulty walking across. Of course, no one could carry her, considering the need to hold onto the ropes for balance.

"Okay," Danny said, stepping on the first step. "I'll take a go and see if it's safe."

I couldn't argue with him, since I was too scared myself to step onto that bridge. Danny took a deep breath, and swung his other foot onto the wood. He used to ropes to maintain his balance as he took a few more steps forward. From the way he was walking, it looked safe enough to walk across. Dash stepped forward, and started trailing behind Danny. Then came Star, the Paulina, and then Kwan. Tucker and I stood back to see what Valerie was going to do.

"Okay," she said, stepping forward to hold onto the ropes. She handed the crutch over to Tucker, and took a deep breath. She used the ropes a pole she could put her weight on, and only used her left foot to take steps forward. Once she was a few good steps in front of us, she looked over her shoulders to smile reassuringly at us. "I think I can take it from here."

I nodded, and started walking across the bridge. Danny and Dash already reached the other side, and were waiting patiently for us. Paulina and Star reached the other side just as me, Tucker and Valerie were at the half of the bridge. Kwan reached the end, and we were almost twenty steps way from the other side.

Well, until disaster struck.

At that time, two things happened at once. The first was that the ropes on our right side snatching out of the wooden stick holding it where the others stood. The second was that Valerie's left foot missed one of the wooden steps, and went through the gap in between.

"No," Valerie yelled in panic as her body started sagging downward.

Panic surged through me. Almost on instinct, the others lunged forward and held on to the cut rope, pulling it backwards. Tucker and I froze in place, scared that if we moved the bridge would collapse right beneath our feet. Valerie was breathing in ragged gasps, but was too experience with stuff like this as to panic and move abruptly. I took deep breaths to slow down my beating heart, and took slow steps towards Valerie. She kept holding onto the ropes, and was trying to slowly pull herself up. Once I was right behind her, I took the chance and let go of the ropes myself, and bend down. I put my hands under her armpits in an attempt to pull her up.

"Hurry up," Kwan said, causing me to look up at him. He and the others were all gripping the cut rope, pulling it backwards with all their strength. "We don't think we can hold it much longer."

"I'm trying," I yelled at them miserably, pulling harder onto Valerie. It's not that she was heavy, but her leg was stuck in between the gap. We both pulled hard, but it was no use. Even Tucker came by my side and tried pulling her up with me.

I felt a new weight added onto the bridge. We all looked up, and saw Danny coming towards us. I panicked, of course, since he could endanger both his life and ours.

I shook my head at him. "No, Danny, stay where you are. It won't make any difference."

But he didn't listen, and kept taking careful footsteps towards us. Once he reached us, he bent down, and held Valerie's leg.

He looked up at us. "On the count of three, pull."

We nodded, and I tightened my grip on Valerie, as did Tucker and Danny. "One…" I muttered as I bent down to get ready to pull. "Two…" Tucker said, doing the same thing.

"Three!" Danny yelled, and we all starting pulling. In a matter of seconds, Valerie's leg was out of the hole, but the abrupt movement caused the two woods that were separated by the gap to break and fall onto the ground below. And let me tell you, that was some deep hole. We stood there for almost a minute before we finally heard a crashing sound.

We all acted fast, and started moving towards the other side. I was sure that the bridge was just seconds away from collapsing, and thankfully, we made it to the other side just in time. Tucker pulled the crutch with him, and we all stumbled to the ground just as the others let go of the rope in exhaustion. Just as that movement was done, the entire bridge fell to the side as the rope was released. Then, as if by instinct, the other rope cut, and the bridge fell until it collapsed with the wall on the other side. Dust flew everywhere once the bridge made contact with the wall.

"Well," Dash said, breaking the silence. "There goes our way out."

"Come on," Danny said, getting up and dusting off his clothes. "We have to get moving."

We all got up, and headed towards the other door. The scene in front of us was different this time. Instead of a bridge and a hole, there was sort of a square-like pond in the middle of the room. There was a bridge in the middle, but this time, it looked like a regular bridge you'd see in the water park over a lake. And instead of it being right in front of us, it was crossing the lake from the horizontal side. There were other doors at the end of the room, leading to who knows where. But at the end of the room, there lay a torn out throne where a skeleton lay. Okay, I'm just spitballing here, but I'm guessing that that was the king we were after.

"Okay," Paulina said after we were just digesting the scene. "I think that's the king."

"No," Valerie said sarcastically, opening her eyes wide. "You think so?"

I resisted the urge to laugh. Okay, so Valerie actually did have the right to be pissed off at Paulina, on account of the bullet and all. We all started walking on the edges of the room, where we were careful not to fall into the water. Okay, I don't know if it was just me, but that water seemed like animals died in it or something.

"Okay," Tucker said as we started walking towards the throne. "This place is starting to give me the heebie-jeebies."

"Oh, just walk," Dash said in annoyance. "It's not enough with everything that's been happening to us, we have to end up in a freaky Temple without a way out."

"You know," Paulina said, making conversation as we walked. "I'm getting really tired of all these mysteries. I mean, things were way easier when I was in Spain, and it just doesn't seem fair that–"

"You know, Paulina," I said in annoyance as everyone started groaning. "I'm getting really tired of your attitude. Seriously, do you need help with _everything_?"

"Yeah, sure, pick on the injured," Valerie said, directing her words at Paulina. "Don't you ever get tired of yourself? Or do you talk just to hear yourself talk?"

Paulina rolled her eyes at us. "Ugh, whatever. I can take care of myself, and I don't need anybody to help me. When we get back home, I am so going to make your lives hell–"

She was cut off by her foot, which she accidently misplaced. She tripped on the edge of the floor, and fell right through the pond. She let out a shriek before she made contact with the water. We all couldn't resist laughing, and even Star started chuckling a bit. She splashed through the surface, a look of panic and horror on her face.

"Oh my God," Paulina said, spitting some water out of her mouth. "This water is freezing. Somebody help me out."

"Sorry," I said, my voice a bit hoarse from the laughter. "But you said yourself that you don't need help from anybody."

Paulina had a look of anger and regret. "Okay, I'm sorry, I learned my lesson now. Now will someone please help me out of this place?"

Dash rolled his eyes, and said, "Okay, try and swim over here so I can pull you up."

Paulina tried moving her arms to come back towards us. But somehow, she wasn't moving.

"Uh, guys," she said, as she started flinging her arms faster in the water. "I can't move."

"What do you mean you can't move?" Danny asked.

"I can't move!" Paulina yelled in panic. "There's something holding on to my foot."

We all just stood there in confusion as Paulina's panic more and more. She started flinging her legs around in the water, and finally broke free of whatever was holding her.

Kwan shrugged as she started swimming towards us. "Maybe it was just seaweed," he said. Paulina nodded in agreement, and reached the edge. Just as Dash was about to pull her up, she fell down in the water. It was almost as if some unseen force was pulling her down under.

"Paulina?" Danny asked. "Whatever it is you're doing isn't funny."

She was down under for a very long time that we all started to panic. Dash looked at us one more time before jumping in. We all just stood there, waiting. It's not that I liked Paulina or Dash or anything, but it's just that we can't afford to have anybody killed here.

After a few seconds of panicked silence, Dash crashed through the surface, Paulina following after a few seconds.

"Are you guys okay?" I asked uncertainly. They both looked at us for a second, and then Paulina said, "I-I don't know. Maybe this lake is cursed too?"

"Okay, then, get up here," Danny said. Dash and Paulina started swimming towards us, and Dash was the first one to climb. Paulina held onto the edge, and was about to pull herself up when the rock she was holding started moving. She froze, and looked at the rock with wide eyes. The rock turned towards her, and I suddenly saw a flash of red. Paulina instantly let go of it, and screamed.

It was a skeleton.

"Pull me up, pull me up!" Paulina yelled at Dash. She waved her hands up as the skeleton started separating itself from the dirt, and Dash grabbed onto her hands and started pulling. Danny and I joined in and started pulling her out of the water. But no matter how hard we pulled, she wouldn't budge.

"What the hell?" I thought out loud as I tried pulling harder. Then, as if on cue, something emerged out of the water right behind Paulina.

It was another skeleton. Paulina must've noticed the panic and fear in our eyes, since she turned around to look at what we were gaping at. Once she saw the red-eyed skeleton, she let out another scream and started flinging around her legs as to pull herself up. This time, we were successful in pulling her out of the water, and she clung onto Dash like a sticker.

"Oh God," Star said in fear. "Look."

She pointed in front of us, and I realized that the prophecy wasn't kidding about the dangers here.

Skeletons started rising from the water, and some separated themselves from the edges of the ground. It was like the water was barfing up skeletons. All of their eyes shimmered red, and they looked really, _really _angry.

"Crap," Dash said as the skeletons started emerging from the ground as well, coming towards us. The skeletons that were in the water were climbing up the edge of the ground. We all shared brief glances before we took off running towards the throne where the King's skeleton sat. We finally reached the skeleton, and Danny stepped forward to search through him and find whatever key it is we were supposed to find.

"Hurry," Kwan said as he anxiously looked around at the skeletons that were walking over to us. They were limping actually, but hey, they were skeletons after all.

"Aha," Danny said in triumph as he pulled out a key from who knows where. "Got it."

"Okay," I said, grabbing the key from Danny and stuffing it into my pocket. "You guys grab the skeleton and let's get the hell out of here."

Danny, Tucker, Dash and Kwan stepped forward and carried the corpse. They made disgusted faces as the smell of it reached us, and I had to cover my nose from how repulsive the smell was.

"Okay," I said, coughing a bit. "Now let's go before those angry skeletons reach us."

Just as I took one step behind me, I was face to face with a skeleton. Was it just me, or was that skeleton _smirking _at me?

"We meet again, Samantha," It spoke, and for the first time, I recognized who it was.

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**A/N: **DUN DUN DUN DUUNNNN! XD Didn't expect THAT, now didya? ... To be honest, I wasn't either, but I needed something to shake it up a bit.. :P

Anyways, I think I'm almost done! There will be three or four more chapters, most likely, so cross your fingers and hope I write them soon! And if you want me to type faster, then please review! XD

REVIEW! (I know I just said that, but it adds on the pressure *Smiles evilly*


	15. The Sacrifices We Make

**Author's Note: **Hey guys, whattup? So, here is another update, and you better be happy that it was only one week later :P But, I'm glad I updated! XD Hope you are too!

Oh, update on Egypt: Things are not going too well here. Even though Mubarak is finally gone, things are really turning into a mess with the politics. And, there's still those loose criminals, the country are raging with them. My mom and dad are too worried to even let me go to school! Life is so boring right now :P

**Disclaimer: **Hey, guess what I own you guys? An iPod! (ButnotDannyPhantom) :P

* * *

_Chapter 15_

_The Sacrifices We Make_

_Throne Room, Sacred Temple_

_Sam's POV_

Okay, I know that I'm not really the kind of girl who would instantly make friendships with people who aren't technically alive. And also people who are trying to kill us. But hey, is it really my fault that I needed information? I mean, come on, if you were in my shoes, you'd do what I did and talk to nearly decomposing people who used to be the captain and the crew of the ship that brought you here.

And now I couldn't regret it more.

Okay, I know that it wasn't really my fault that they've turned evil, but come on, I should've known. I mean, the instant their bodies started turning into dust should've been a warning. But, no, silly little me had to believe in the greater good in everybody, and now I think I am going to be the first one they kill. Just perfect.

"Okay," I said, my heart pounding fiercely in my chest. "Listen to me captain, you have to fight this. I know who I was talking to earlier today, and I know that it isn't the person standing in front of me right now."

Okay, half of what I said was partly true, but not entirely. I mean, when I am under pressure and really afraid, I tend to babble a lot, even if what I say doesn't even make any sense. I could almost feel the others piercing me with looks that I was sure told me that I was crazy. But hey, old habits die hard.

The captain/evil leader skeleton laughed. "Really? Well, I like being not me at this moment. So much more freedom."

It was almost as if he was amused. Okay, I _know _he was amused.

"Look," I tried reasoning with him again, even though I knew it wasn't going to do any good. "We can save you. We can save all of you. All you need to do is just show us where that volcano and the Heart of Death are so we can de-activate the curse and save you all. Please."

I made hand signals at the others behind my back, telling them to move quickly while I distract the others. I don't think they got it exactly, but I did hear a few footsteps walking away and was a bit relieved. At least some of us might make it out alive, and I just hoped that I could be able to distract them enough so that the others could hurry up and de-activate the curse already.

Skeleton Captain took a few more steps closer to me, causing me to take a step backward. "Tell me," he said. "Why do you want to get out of this island?"

Once he said that, I knew he was under my spell. I made my hand signal again, telling the others that it was okay now for them to start moving, and faced the skeleton confidently. "Why do _you _want to stay on this island?"

He tilted his head, and I thought I saw him narrow his eyes. "Because I have everything. I have a crew, I have the power, and I have immortality."

This was starting to sound like a _Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl _kinda story. All the ship's crew was cursed to turning live skeletons once under the moonlight, but the difference here was that these people were in skeleton form 24/7. And let me tell you, it was a sight I would pay _not _to see. The scene of it just makes me wanna shudder.

"But don't you think it's a waste?" I asked, using my best therapist voice. "I mean, sure you have immortality and all, but what will you use it to do? I mean, you can't eat, you can't sleep, and once you're done with us, you'll just turn into dust and wait for the next victim. And I don't know about you, but I think that victim won't come except in a hundred years or something."

God, I am such a babbler. And I don't even know whether that's a real word. Okay, so I'll admit I sounded like I was studying the history of this island for the past ten years or something, but I just got together what I got out from our little time here and what I've seen on TV – wow, I seem to watch TV a lot.

The captain looked thoughtful for a second. Turning back to glance at his crew, he seemed to smirk a bit before turning back to face me. "You know what?" he said, walking closer to me. "I think you may be right. I might have an idea that could be suitable for both of us."

I was actually starting to think he was going to let us de-activate the curse, but then he snapped his bony fingers and in an instant his crew ran and caught the others, who were successfully a few feet away from us. Another skeleton came behind me and grabbed in an iron grip. I tried to struggle, grumbling, "Let me go," I swung my arms all over the place, but to my astonishment, the stayed exactly where the skeleton was holding them. Wow, for bones, these guys were really strong.

"You know how we can de-activate the curse and save both you humans and us?" he asked, even though I knew he wasn't going to wait for our answer. "Well, the answer is simple: Place the Key into the Heart of Death, and throw the king's corpse into the volcano…" He trailed off as his eyes lingered on me.

Okay, I was seriously agitated. "But that's what we were going to do in the first place!" I yelled in his face. I felt the others stiffen, afraid that that might have caused the captain to blow in anger, but it never came. Instead, he just smirked at me.

"That catch, though, is," he completed, walking closer to me until his was inches away from my face. "you also have to throw in a fleshy, heroic human's blood."

As he said that, he lifted his hand and started touching and squeezing my cheeks to emphasize the whole 'fleshy' part.

My eyes almost fell out of their sockets. Seriously, that's how shocked I was. I mean, not only does it explain the whole 'No one entered and got out alive' thing, but it also proved to me that I should listen to Paulina more often and stay next to the wall, not away from it. Oh great, not only is one of us going to die – or all of us if captain skeleton here is not telling the truth – and I have to admit that Paulina is right about something. Perfect.

"But-but," Star stuttered in horror. "Why?"

The captain let go of my face to look at her. "Well, for us to be turned back into human we have to sacrifice a human to do that, right?"

The look on Star's face went from horror and confusion into just plain horror. I mean, who could blame her? I was nearly in tears just thinking about it. And who, exactly, would be the 'heroic human' that gets thrown into the volcano? It's obviously not going to be any of the A-listers, since they'd throw a baby in front of them just to protect themselves. Not so sure about Tucker, though, we are talking about someone who's afraid of hospitals. Me and Valerie? It doesn't completely fit the bill, since Valerie just hunts ghosts for her own good, not for humanity. And me, well, I just hunt ghosts to be with Danny and –

Oh, crap. Danny.

My eyes widened and instinctively I turned to look at Danny, who, from the look on his face, seemed to be thinking exactly what I was thinking. Of course it would be Danny! He's the one risking his damn life fighting those damn ghosts to protect our damn town! Who else is there? Paulina? Tucker? No, of course not. I could literally feel my heart rise to my throat, making me breathe in horrified gasps. But, it couldn't be Danny. Could it? I mean, if we do make it out of here, we would have to without Danny. And, really, what is like without Danny? Nothing. It's like eating a cake that has no sugar in it. And, the only one who would volunteer in jumping into a volcano to save us all would be Danny. I mean, if the skeletons knew about what he did they'd choose him in a blink of an eye.

This sucks. This truly, utterly sucks.

As if he read my mind, Danny broke eye contact with me, and turned to the captain. "I'll do it."

Even though I knew he was going to say that, I felt tears in my eyes. I shook my head wildly, saying, "No. No, no, Danny. There has to be another way – "

But neither Danny nor the captain paid attention to me. Instead, the captain walked closer to Danny, who was standing confidently in front of him. "So, you would sacrifice yourself for your friends?"

Before replying with a yes, Danny gave me a glance, a look of heartbreak and pain in his eyes. I almost broke down crying right there and right now, but I tried holding myself together, because skeletons who would throw a person into a volcano without blinking would definitely not take pity on a heartbroken idiot crying over a boy. Sure, it was the only boy I've ever fallen in love with, but still –

Wait, did I just admit that I was in love with Danny?

Oh my God… yes… it wasn't just a stupid crush or an attraction. It was love. I was in love with my best friend, Danny Fenton, the one I'd known my entire life like the back of my hand. The one who was always there for me and I was always there for him. The one who –

The one who was about to die today.

People weren't kidding when they said that love sucks. It seriously does.

The captain seemed to grin. "Then that proves that you are the one we need. But, before making drastic measures, we should probably place the Key into the Heart of Death and find the volcano, don't you think? It's convenient though, because they say the Heart of Death is in the same location as the volcano."

What an ego on this guy, thinking he knew everything. Well, did he know that he was about to rip apart half of me and Tucker? Did he know that he was going to scar us all for life? And did he also know that he was tormenting just plain teenagers? I know the answer to that: No.

The captain turned to the other skeleton, from what I picked out, his 'crew'. "Let's go."

The skeleton holding me started tugging me forward, leading me towards a door at the side of the room. Two other skeletons were holding the King's corpse, following behind us. Everyone was quiet, a look of horror and sadness and confusion on their faces. I kept on finding my eyes trailing towards Danny, who looked on the verge of tears. Who could blame him? The poor guy was going to give up his life for us. But, who would be there to fly me to school every morning? Who would be there for me to tutor math to? Who would be there to fight the ghosts and protect Amity Park? Danny was going to leave a huge hole behind if he went through with this.

So, that's why, for the next few silent minutes as we walked in a narrow, stone-built staircase, I was hatching up a plan.

"Now," the captain spoke as we entered a door. "Here we are."

The room was nothing like I expected. There weren't skeletons lying around the room, swords in their chest and choking. There wasn't any furniture that looked centuries old; there wasn't any 'Beware Volcano' sign or stuff like that. Instead, there was only a long wall – kinda like the one we found in the clearing that had the prophecy about the cave – instead this one had no Esperanzo on it, and was engraved with weird drawings and triquetra triangles. And, right in the center of the wall, lay a small and circular palm-sized hole.

"So," I said as the information raced through my mind and the puzzle pieces fit together. "That's the Heart of Death."

"The triquetra triangle," Valerie said, a look of final understanding on her face. "That would explain how the dinosaur died the instant Tucker removed the symbol."

On instinct, Tucker dug into his pocket and got out the symbol he had snatched from the dinosaur earlier. It all made sense now, why all those monsters had the triquetra triangle engraved on them and disappearing off of them once they're dead or killed. The triquetra triangle both brings them life yet kills them once it is removed. But I guess with the wall it's the other way around, without the triquetra triangle, the monsters can live, and with it they…

As if reading my thoughts, Tucker started walking towards the wall slowly, triquetra triangle symbol in his hand. Once he reached the wall, he shared one last glance at the symbol before raising it to the wall and placing it into the hole. It fit perfectly, and once it was fully in contact with the wall, a gold light made its way across the circle, fully attaching it to the wall as to not fall, and the cracks around it disappeared. And then, right after that, a lock-shaped hole appeared in the middle of the stone Tuck just put.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the key. The shape of its end looked just like the one on the middle of the triquetra triangle. "Hey, Tuck," I said, giving it to him. "I think you're gonna need this."

I threw the key over to him, and he caught it in both of his hands before trying to put it in the lock. It fit perfectly, and Tucker had to quickly remove his hand because it instantly glowed, and sunk deep within the stone. The key was glowing all the way through, and when it disappeared, the entire wall glowed. The light traced every triquetra triangle, and I had to shield my eyes as the light increased and seemed to surround us all.

Tucker stepped back from the wall, his eyes shielded. When the life disappeared, we uncovered our eyes, and stood there, waiting. After almost five minutes of awkwardly standing there, everything was dead silent, and nothing happened.

"That's it?" Paulina asked, sounding annoyed. "No huge growl, no earthquake, no nothing?"

As if on cue, I felt the ground beneath us shake, and heard growls far off in the distance. I had to spread my legs apart to keep my balance as the shaking increased.

"Thanks a lot, Paulina," Valerie said as the growls got closer and louder. Then, almost as sudden as it came, the shaking stopped, and so did the growling. The only thing we heard after that was loud crashes. I assumed that was the sound of the monster dying and falling.

Then everything went still and silent.

"One done, two to go," the captain said enthusiastically as he ushered the other skeletons to drag us with him. They led us around the wall, and there stood another door. I was curious as to what was behind that door, another wall, the volcano maybe? But was made my curious though was how a volcano can fit into a Temple floor.

I found out when the skeletons pushed us through the door. It wasn't even a room. Once we entered through the door, I realized that the Temple sort of broke of, leaving us walking, instead on well made wooden floorboards, we were walking on dirt. In front of us, there was a short distance up from the ground to where a huge hole was.

A hole that looked like an opening to a volcano.

"That's it?" Paulina whispered as she stared up at the volcano. The skeletons pushed us towards it, but had to leave us so we could climb the short 20 feet up. It wasn't all that hard to climb, since in gym class at school the gym teacher would make us climb rope and those climbing walls you see in amusement parks. It was harder for some people though – CoughPaulinaStarCough – which was kinda weird since they were cheerleaders.

Once we reached the top, I realized there was a lot of space to stand up on until we reached the hole. It was enough space to fit in a bed, a closet, and a bedside table. Yeah, that's how huge it was. We didn't need the skeletons tugging to walk near the opening. Rocks emerged from under our feet, and I could feel myself rising up and down as I walked. Once we reached the hole, I could light emanate from down below. Curious, I looked down, and saw the orange, scorching lava. Okay, this was an experience I would never forget. Ever.

Two skeletons stepped forward as I stood back in fear of tripping. They were the skeletons that were holding the king – er, what was left of him, I mean – and started swinging it back and forth. After 3 swings and a count to three, they released the king and threw him into the volcano. There was a long wait before we heard the crash, and then there were bubbling and hissing noises as his bones turned to ashes and he sunk into the lava.

Just as the sound stopped, something weird happened. A shield-like wall that looked like it was surrounding the island appeared. It was invisible white, and I almost wouldn't have seen it if it weren't for the glow it was emanating. The dome-shaped shield, that had been surrounding the island from top the bottom, started disappearing. The walls started removing itself from the sand below, moving up, up towards the sky, where its base stood. Once the shield completely disappeared, I felt different. It was almost as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I was able to breathe again.

We all turned back when we heard gasping. Almost half of the skeletons that were standing there started turning into dust. Some of them we so shocked that they started to scream, but some people just stood there and stared at themselves in shock. I could count almost twenty who were left – these were probably the crew. After the skeletons disappeared, all there was left from them was dust.

When I looked at the others, I could see that they were feeling the same way: Shocked, confused, and relieved at the same time. But, that feeling soon disappeared when one of the skeletons dragged Danny forward.

"Wait," Danny said as he turned to us. "Can I at least say goodbye?"

The captain shared suspicious glances with the other skeletons, but nodded in approval. The skeletons let go of Danny, and he walked over to Dash and Kwan first.

"Y'know, Fenton," Dash said, looking as if he was trying hard not to twist his face in sadness. "You're alright."

Danny forced a smile as he said, "You too, Dash."

Kwan only gave him a heartfelt smile and allowed him to walk to Star and Paulina. "I don't know what to say," Paulina said, looking as if she was trying not to cry as hard as I was. "except, thank you. I mean, what you're doing is just unbelievable. And, I'm sorry for every time did mean things to you."

"Yeah, me too," Star agreed. Danny muttered a "Thanks" along with a smile as he walked to Valerie. Valerie lunged herself on his forgetting her injured leg and catching him in a hug.

"I'm gonna miss you," I heard her whisper as Danny hugged her back. Once she let go of him, he grabbed her crutch and handed them to her.

"You too, Val," he said, sighing. Tears were spilling down her face as he turned to Tucker. Tucker didn't need to say any words except for a hug.

"Who am I going to scout out girls with, man?" was all Tucker said as a joke, which worked as it made Danny laugh. I, on the other hand, wasn't anywhere near a smile as Danny came to me.

"Please don't do this," I whispered as a tear spilled down my cheek. All Danny did was cup my cheek and wipe my tear with his thumb.

"I don't have a choice, Sammy," he said so softly that I could barely hear. "It's either just me or all of us."

I lifted my hand to hold his hand that was cupping my cheek. "It doesn't have to be that way," I tried again, even though I knew I wasn't going convince him not to do this. "We could try and fight these guys and throw _them _into the volcano. It's too late for them, but we still have hope. Please Danny, just don't do this."

The tears started spilling by now, and I realized that it was the first time anyone saw me cry – ever. Danny used his other hand to cup my other cheek, and he bent down to kiss my forehead. I used that as an excuse to hug him, clinging on him tightly as I tried to stop crying. I smelled the scent of his hair – he smelled just like freshly cut grass right after a rainstorm, and there was a hint of oranges too. He just smelled so… fresh.

"This sucks," I mumbled into his shoulder as the tears went down his t-shirt.

"I know," he said, and for one second, I could hear the heartbreak and pain coming from his voice. After a few seconds just standing there hugging each other, we were forced to let go. I sniffed and wiped my tears, even though I knew more would come.

Danny gave me one last nod before he turned away. Before I could change my mind, and held onto his arm. "Wait," I said as I pulled him closer. I used my free hand to hold onto his neck and lifted my lips up to his.

It was too short to be our first real kiss, but I felt fireworks nonetheless. Just the feeling of his soft lips against mine was enough to cause butterflies flutter in my stomach, Goosebumps on my arms, and my heart to flip.

I unwillingly let go, and tried to smile at him. He gave my hand one final squeeze and smile before he walked away towards the hole. Even though I was thankful I did that, I still felt uncertain whether he felt the same way or not. Okay, I knew this wasn't the time or place, but I couldn't help but wonder.

But no matter how much I tried to accept the truth of what was about to happen, I couldn't. I couldn't accept the fact that Danny was about to give up his life for us. I mean, who wouldn't miss him? A lot of people would, I'll tell you that. I mean, not only do Dash and Kwan like him now, but if he does live Paulina might actually consider dating him now. He would have a huge life against him, and he was going to waste it all.

But I know someone whose life wasn't like his. There was someone here among us who won't have a lot of people miss them if they died. That someone wouldn't even care if they were risking their life just for a bunch of people, but risking their life for Danny would be the only peace they'd get if they do die.

And that someone might just do anything for the person they.

Something came over me then. Everything started shifting into slow motion like you see in the movies, and my mind was racing. That's it then. That's what was going to happen.

I turned to the skeleton that was holding me, and pretended to look on the ground. "Hey, is that a cockroach?" I said in wonder. Plan successful, the skeleton looked down on the ground, but all there was on the ground was dirt. I used this distraction to lift my arm from his hold and connect my elbow to his skull. He fell backwards in shock, and I used that to run towards Danny, who had looked back at the sudden sound.

"What are you doing?" he said angrily and in confusion when I was by his side.

Before I could change my mind, I said, "Saving you." I used all of my strength to push him backwards away from the hole, and gave him one last look before hurling myself through the opening.

It was like nothing I've ever experienced before. I mean, I've went bungee-jumping before and everything, but then I'd had something tugging on my foot and pull me up again. The full blow of the wind and the adrenalin flowing through my blood caused my head to spin. It was like the fall was the thing killing me and not the lava.

The last thing I saw before blacking out was a white light.

* * *

**A/N: **DUN DUN DUUUNNN! Didn't see that one coming, didya? Okay, okay, so I know that throwing Sam to the fires of hell wasn't much of a great thing on her part, but, in this story, I see her as a girl who would literally kill herself for the person she loved, yadda yadda yadda, all that cliche romance stuff. So, whatcha think? Did I put a plunge in your heart like I did in mine? (Oh, so you thought this was easy to write? Well, THINK AGAIN!) I don't know who this is going to be a story with our Sammy, but I think I should change it for Hurt/Comfort? I still dunno... :( I'm very evil that sometimes it scares ME :P

Review please! (Or I will throw DANNY in the volcano in the next chapter *Gets ready to push*


	16. A Touch Of Death

**Author's Note: **But I - And you - and we - but - Sam and - D-Danny and -

I hate you.

LOL, not really, I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH THAT IT HURTS! When I read your reviews I was SOOOOO happy! XD And a little bit annoyed that some of you figured it out :P Man, you guys are smarter than I gave you credit for! But, I kinda liked it that you were able to figure it out, which meant that you were paying attention to the story! XD Man, I adore you guys! Thank for being my best inspiration and the reason this story is still alive! XD

**Disclaimer: **Let's see, I own the plot, I own awesome reviews from even awesomer reviewers, oh butIdon'townDannyPhantom...

* * *

_Chapter 16_

_A Touch Of Death_

_Volcano Summit, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

Death was easy. Peaceful. Life, on the other hand, was brutal. You know when people say that before you die you see your life flash right before your eyes? Well, that didn't happen with me. None of that cliché crap. All I was able to think about was how happy I was that I was able to save Danny. I wasn't even the slightest bit regretful of what I did.

Darkness was the only thing I saw. Being Goth, it wasn't that hard to adjust to the darkness, since I spent most of my time in it. It was comforting, actually, the darkness and the silence. It was as if I was sleeping, but I wasn't dreaming and I wasn't going to wake up. That was a fact I was willing to accept, unlike Danny being dead. And finally, for the first time in my entire life, I was at peace.

I remember hearing yelling and cries when I jumped. I remember hearing Danny call out my name in horror. I remember seeing that bright white light. Was that 'the light' people kept talking about? The one people said you had to see and enter to find your life after death? Was that it?

But… where was the pain? Where was the effervescence of the lava as it burned me, consumed me and ate every last flesh of my skin? Wasn't I supposed to feel pain before I died? Or was it the fall that killed me then?

But… why was I feeling something? Why was I still hearing voices… a voice…? Danny's voice. It was definitely Danny's voice I was hearing, but the question was why? Is it possible for me to hear Danny's voice when I'm dead? Or was I a ghost, then? I knew I didn't have any unfinished business, but I couldn't help but wonder.

He was calling my name. Danny was repeating my name, desperately asking me to wake up. Why was I able to feel my eyelids covering my eyes, that the darkness was just that? What am I if I weren't dead?

My eyes slowly opened, and I was shocked to what I saw. I didn't see more darkness or a light or anything like that. I saw eyes… green eyes. Wait, I was sure it was Danny. How could he have green eyes?

Then I realized everything as information tumbled down on me. Danny was going to die. He was going to jump into the volcano but I stopped him and jumped in myself. But then I saw a light… wasn't that 'the light'? Now, wait, it couldn't be… that light wasn't as magical and big as everyone said it was… it was a light I recognized, a light that I was used to seeing everyday when we were home.

It was the light that emanated from Danny when he went ghost.

That would explain the green eyes. It was Danny who was in front of me, who looked worried and horrorstruck. Was he dead too?

"Danny?" I managed to croak out as I narrowed my eyes against the bright light.

He suddenly smiled, looking relieved and happy. "God, Sam," he said as tears started spilling from his eyes. Why was he crying? "Don't you ever scare my like that again." He pulled my head closer to him as he buried his face in my neck, giving me some sort of hug. I realized then that he was carrying my bridal style.

I looked down over his shoulder and saw the lava. The lava… I'm not dead, am I? I was alive, and I was with Danny… who was ghost. The curse! Of course! It was lifted when we threw in the king, which lifted the wall that was enabling Danny from turning ghost!

How convenient too.

But something was still confusing. He wasn't grateful that I was trying to save his life? I turned to look at him, still feeling hazy from the fall. "But Danny, I couldn't let you die. Something – my subconscious maybe – made me do what I did."

"But Sam, that was so stupid!" he said, switching instantly from concern to relief to anger. "I was never really going to die."

That snapped everything into shape and things stopped being hazy. "What?" I snapped as my eyes widened in shock.

"Sam, do you think I'm an idiot?" he seemed taken aback that I would think that, which I didn't… well, kinda. As he was talking, he flew us to a small rock that was attached to the wall. He gently set me down, and sat down beside me. "I had a plan the instance I volunteered myself. I knew that the instance we'd throw in the king's skeleton the curse would be lifted and I'd be able to go ghost. Then I'd just fly up again and find away to sneak attack the skeletons without blowing my cover and try and find a way to come back without blowing my secret."

Just hearing him saying it – Danny, of all people – made me feel stupid. God, how could I have not seen that? How could I be so stupid as to not wonder how Danny didn't look so devastated when he was about to jump?

Yet… nothing got me to say 'Why did I do it?'.

I looked at Danny seriously, and said softly, "Look, I'm sorry for ever doubting you, but yet… I can't get myself to regret or wish to take back what I did."

Danny's look of anger changed into one of appreciation and gentleness. "Sam, what you did – "

"Was stupid, I know," I cut him off. "I should've given you more credit that I do, and I honestly really thought you were actually going to jump. But I just know that even if you did have a plan I would've done it all over again without giving it a second thought. Danny, look, you can hate me for all you want about me trying to even do something as dumb as that, but you have to understand that I–"

God, I'm such a babbler. I never know what comes over me at these times. Even though I try to tell myself to just shut up, I couldn't. Danny, though, knew how. I was still rambling on how 'I should've thought it through and not have just acted like that', when all it took to shut me up was Danny tracing the tip of his fingers on my cheek.

"No, Sam," he said so softly that I almost didn't hear him. "What you did… it was amazing, Sam. I mean, you were ready to _die _for me, and I don't think I can name one person who would even think of doing that to me. I don't know what to say except… thank you. Really."

He used his hand that was still tracing my cheek to remove a strand of hair that fell on my eyes. All I could really do was smile and say, "Your welcome."

Danny started leaning in – probably returning the kiss I had given him – and we were almost inches apart before our lips touched when he heard a growl. Danny and I abruptly broke apart and looked up. What? I thought the curse was lifted and all the beasts died!

"It didn't work?" something – or rather someone – roared in anger, and I saw some rocks falling over the edge. Danny and I shared glances when I remembered the others and the angry captain. "We threw in two of them and it still didn't work?"

"Oh, no," I said, biting my lip nervously. "I think we may have forgotten about something."

Danny turned to look at me. "What now?"

I sighed in frustration and defeat. "Try your sneak attack plan?"

"Nah," Danny said, grinning at me. "I have a better idea." He looked over at the lava bellow, and then looked in front of him without really seeing it. In a loud and confident voice, he yelled, "Clockwork!"

It only took one word. Really, just one word: Clockwork. Because if I knew anyone who could come and help us out of this mess, it would be, without a doubt, Clockwork.

He appeared almost after five seconds after Danny called out to him. From the look on his face, he seemed relieved and worried as hell at the same time.

"Oh, thank Goodness," he said when he saw us. "I thought I might not be able to come here."

"Wait, not be able to come here?" I asked in confusion, frowning at him.

He smiled a knowing smile at me. "The Curse prevents us ghosts from coming here, which would explain why Daniel hasn't been able to turn ghost. I have been watching, though, and I have feared you would make the wrong decisions." He looked at me sharply and knowingly. "Like jumping into a volcano, for instance."

I blushed, and bend down my face to hide the red that was rising in my cheeks. It was partly because I was embarrassed of being so arrogant and stupid, and partly because Clockwork actually _knew _why I jumped in the first place. The guy can see the future; he might as well read minds.

Danny changed the subject quickly, probably because he didn't want Clockwork to point out his bad decisions, whatever they were. "Clockwork, how do we get out of this one without blowing my secret?"

Clockwork seemed thoughtful for a second, before he said, "What do you have in mind?"

Ugh. Typical Clockwork. Answering our questions about the future with questions about the future. I said, "Well, we could always turn back time and stop ourselves from coming to this island in the first place."

Clockwork shook his head. "No, that is not the proper way. It will inevitably happen anyway, and it will erase everything you have learned throughout this journey."

I heard Danny sigh. "How about we prevent the captain's and crew's transformation?"

I thought about that and it didn't seem to work at all. "No, we can't, since we'll have to go back to the instant we crashed and stop them from going on their own." I turned to Clockwork. "If you know what we can do, please tell us, because it won't be much longer before the angry skeletons up there suggest throwing in the rest of the guys."

Clockwork shook his head again. "That, I cannot tell you. Revealing the future is against the rules, as you already know."

I sighed as I tried to think about something else. What could we do, really? We could turn back time to the instant we lifted the curse and try and attack them… Or we could stop time and throw _them _into the volcano… but that would attract way too many questions from the others when they suddenly disappeared… Wait, how about…

I turned to Clockwork. "How about we just save them?" I suggested, waiting for their reactions.

"Save who? The skeletons?" Danny asked, looking at me like I was crazy.

I rolled my eyes and said, "They're not just skeletons, Danny, they're the crew. They were like us, but the curse was able to catch up to them first. I don't know, it just seems like the right thing to do."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Clockwork asked as he shifted from child to teen to old person in a second.

My mind trailed back to what the captain told us. "Didn't the captain say it took human blood to deactivate the curse?" I asked, looking at Danny. He nodded, urging me to go on. "Well, couldn't we just cut ourselves and let the blood fall into the volcano?"

Danny looked at me indifferently. "I suppose we could do that, but why did the captain specifically say 'throw a human into the volcano'?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, maybe to have a reassurance that the blood would fall into the lava? But, it also might have something to do with how he was ready to kill us all, so it wouldn't come as a surprise to me if he was just doing that to be evil."

I saw Clockwork smile from the corner of my eyes. He nodded, saying, "That, we can do."

I grinned at him, and looked back at Danny hopefully. He seemed to think about it – for like a second – before grinning. "Alright," he said. "Let's save the creepy skeleton people."

So, I guess I was a do-gooder after all. Even though I love action and hate romance and that crap, I was still set out to do the good thing, whether I know it or not. So, Danny turned to human form just to get out his pocket knife, and turned back to Phantom – man, I missed those green eyes and that snowy white hair. He lifted me by my waist and flew us both down towards the lava slowly as to not accidentally let us touch the scolding fire. I released my hand from around his waist – him having me securely safe in his arms – and lifted the knife to my palm. I took a deep breath before pressing the sharp blade onto my right palm, and slicing it fast through my skin, as if ripping a bandage.

The pain was huge at first from the sudden burn, and I had to grit my teeth as to not let out a small whimper. I handed the knife to Danny as I held onto him as he sliced the knife into his own palm. If it hurt him as much as it hurt me, he didn't show it. I mean, after all, he _does _fight ghosts, and from that comes injuries and stuff like that.

I shared one more reassuring glance with him before he pressed his cut palm with mine. Since he was in ghost form, his blood oozed out in green color. We both laid our hands directly in front of the burning lava, and squeezed our hands together as to pour the blood. Clockwork was watching intently – as if waiting for us to make a mistake we didn't do – even though he already knew what was going to happen. Once the little droplets of red and green blood hit the surface of the lava, the water made a gurgling noise and started bubbling so hard that Danny had to fly a bit higher.

We all waited impatiently as the lava was starting to cool down – was that even possible? – and it resumed its natural flowing, the occasional bubbles popping every once in a while.

"Did it work?" I asked unsurely, biting my lip when nothing happened. I looked up at Clockwork for help, but he only smiled and pointed up. Danny and I shared brief glances before he turned invisible and started flying up towards the entrance of the volcano. Once we were high – and invisible – enough for us to see the others without them seeing us, imagine what was happening.

The skeletons were turning into dust, every bone after another. They were all looking at themselves in curiosity and defeat and sorrow that it hadn't worked. So, we _hadn't _saved them after all. Maybe they got the whole prophecy thing wrong, and skeletons couldn't be saved. The captain seemed to look directly at me – even though I was invisible in Danny's arms – and give me one more pleading look before he turned into dust. So, that was it. We failed to save them…

But then… what was that light? Right on the ground of the hard rocks of the volcano, the dust particles started glowing a bright yellow light. I squinted at it and tried to figure out what it was, with no avail.

The light seemed as if it was actually lifting the dust particles into the air. Dust flew almost everywhere, morphing from shape to shape in the air. Then, the dust split up across the volcano summit, and took individual shapes.

Shapes of humans.

Once the light was gone, I recognized the human face and body and clothes of the captain of the ship. His crew wasn't standing far behind, looking down at themselves in amazement. The others were staring in awe at the now-human crew, tears in their eyes. I couldn't help but smile at the scene in front of me. We did it. We saved everyone.

"We're human again," the captain said, looking down at himself as though he didn't believe. "We're saved."

"Yeah, and for what?" Tucker snapped as he wiped some tears that was falling down his cheeks. "Because of you, my two best friends had to die!"

My heart broke just at the look on Tucker's face, and I felt my own eyes tear up. I knew that I would've felt completely lost and heartbroken if I lost Danny and Tucker. I looked up at Danny to see he also looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, as to not see the look on Tucker's poor face.

The captain looked up and seemed to look at me again. But this time, unlike the time he looked at me a few minutes ago, he looked as if he wasn't really _seeing _me. He took a few steps forward to the hole of the volcano, and sunk to his knees. He looked down at his hands, and I thought I saw tears in his eyes.

"I didn't want to do it," he said in a voice so strangled that I believed him. "But something was controlling me, forcing me to do it. It was like my soul was trapped inside a wrong shell, and I was only able to see and watch what was happening and not be able to do anything about it."

The others seemed to share glances to try and see what they could do, but the captain looked so broken and hurt that he actually looked like he was telling the truth. I looked up at Danny, and nodded at him as a signal to fly us down to the rock we were sitting on earlier. I felt tears warning me to spill over my cheeks, but I tried to control myself and not cry – again.

We sat there in silence for a moment, taking in what we just saw. How could we come back up a volcano – _a volcano_ – and act as if we had never fallen into the lava? How could we show them that we were alive without telling the truth too? So many questions, so little time…

Clockwork cleared his throat to bring out attention – wow, almost forgot he was still here… "I know I am not allowed to interfere with time, but I think I might help you." He held out his hand, and pulled out what seemed to be a rope with something tied up at the end. Then I realized it was the same weapon sort of thing a skeleton had used to knock me out at the cave…

"What could we use this for?" Danny asked as he recognized it, taking it away from Clockwork.

"Well, who's to say that you didn't use this to prevent the fall?" Clockwork said, a smile on his face. Danny and I inspected the rope thing for like another second before looking at each other, grinning.

"This could actually work as a story," I said as Danny and I stood up. "I mean, with the stupid minds of Dash and Paulina, this might actually work out as an excuse."

Danny nodded, and said, "Okay." He smiled gently at me. "Shall we?"

I grinned. "We shall."

Well, let me make this quick: this was a hard one. I mean, Danny and I agreed that we would pretend that we climbed the rocks all the way up – since Danny Fenton could not fly – and would fake exhaustion once we reached the top. But, being the 'I-have-to-be-sure' person I was, I suggested we try climbing the rest of the way from the rock we were standing on. I didn't think it would be that hard since we would only have to climb, like, twenty feet up or something, but, of course, I suck at that stuff.

So, that is how, when we were only 1 feet and a half up, Danny decided that he would fly us 18 feet, and we would pretend to climb that last two feet. So, once we reached the top, I held hard onto the entrance of the volcano and used one of the rocks to support my foot. I pulled up, and saw the others again.

Who seemed to be having a stroke at the sight of us. Seriously, their eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets as they saw me and Danny as we pulled ourselves over and out of the hole. They were all on their knees – probably crying – and they instantly shut up once they saw us.

Danny and I reached the surface, and faked deep breaths as we sunk down on our knees in front of them.

"Danny? Sam?" Tucker asked, looking at us in both confusion and bewilderment. "Are you ghosts now?"

Danny and I shared glances before we laughed. Okay, I know we should be faking the whole 'I-almost-died-but-was-able-to-save-myself', but Tucker really knew how to brighten a mood, whether he knew it or not.

Danny took the first question. "Um, no. We had this." He pulled out the rope Clockwork had given him – and we had removed the rock and threw it who knows where – and raised it up for the others to see. "I flung it when we were falling and it must've caught on one of the rocks and held us up. We were able to climb up the rocks and save ourselves."

The others didn't look confused anymore – nor did they look suspicious or even angry – the only look they had was relief. Just pure relief that we were alive. The captain's look, however, was one of regret and sorry.

"Oh, thank Goodness," he cried as he crawled over to us. "I am terribly and truly sorry about what I did, but I wasn't in control of my body and – "

I raised my hand and put it on his shoulder, smiling softly. "It's okay. You didn't mean it and had nothing to do about it. I get it. Really."

He seemed like I had lifted a ton of bricks off of his shoulders as his head sagged down and I saw a smile play on his lips.

Danny and I got up – faking shaky legs and hesitation though – and trudged towards the others. They slowly got to their feet as well, and looked at us in wonder. Tucker was the first person to step towards us and trap us in a hug.

I honestly felt like I had actually died and come back to life when all the others bombarded me and Danny in hugs and kisses and compliments and whispers of joy.

After the whole reunion and stuff – 'and stuff' meaning the others considering us as heroes and actually _liking _us now – we were heading back to camp. We had decided that the best way to rest and try and find a way to get us off this island – which we weren't in such a hurry to do, since we had nothing to worry about except food and water now – and to just relax. As we walked through the woods of the island, it looked different… more peaceful. There were no more dinosaurs or giant scorpions, there were no more skeletons or zombies, and there were just trees and the ground.

We had reached the beach then. We had been walking for who knows how many hours when I hit the sand – which wasn't gray! It was still night, and the sand was actually gold, the way it should be.

We decided that we'd circle the beach and see if our camp was anywhere near this area, and if it wasn't, we would just camp out here and continue searching the next morning.

Danny and I were constantly asked questions like 'Do you need any water?' or 'Do you want me to carry you?' and other questions like that. It turned out, we were both heroes now. Danny for volunteering to kill himself for us – and when he jumped into the volcano after me – and I was also a hero because I was putting Danny's life in front of mine when I jumped into the volcano. The captain and crew also said that we were heroes because we not only sacrificed out lives to save each other, but we also saved them.

Also, we had walked a bit slower than the others, claiming that we needed a rest stop and that we'd try to keep up and pull Tucker aside to tell him what happened.

"Whoa," he whispered after Danny and I explained everything to him in hushed tones. "That's how you did it?"

I nodded as the sand felt cold and warm and soft beneath my bare feet. "Yep," I said, smiling at Danny. "Nothing like two brilliant minds to save us out of a shitty situation like that."

"So, you're not really heroes," Tucker said, smirking at us. Danny hit him on the shoulder playfully as he laughed.

"Dude, whether what we said was real or not, I still sacrificed myself for you guys, and Sam still jumped to try and save us," Danny said. "And we did save the crew."

Tucker rolled his eyes, a grin on his face. "Yeah, sure man. Just don't _ever _scare my like that again."

Since Tucker was standing in between me and Danny, I was able to give him a side hug. "Wouldn't think of it, Tuck."

We caught up with the others, and walked in silence. Every once in a while someone would try and make conversation, but none lasted. We were all tired and in shock and still digesting everything that had happened on this island. It was one of our worst experiences in our lives, yet I couldn't help but feel it has helped each and every one of us grow in their own way.

"I think I see something," Valerie suddenly said as she squinted through the darkness. "I think we're here."

We had to take a few more steps before we saw the camp. Everything was exactly the way we left it: the logs were still placed in a square around some wood, and there was smoke rising out from what was once our fire. Valerie's baskets and fish poles were lying still on the sand, supported by some of the logs. The box of guns and rifles was still placed in a random place behind some of the wood, near the water. And there was the crashed boat: same crash angle, same broken metal, same everything. Nothing had changed in this small place we currently called 'home'.

Something lighted in the horizon. My eyes were on the crashed ship, when I thought I saw something light beyond the blue waters.

"Hey," I said, snapping the other's attention from the campsite. "What's that?"

Everyone looked to where I was looking and frowned. What _was _that? Did the curse have a backup plan or something that it was sending us sea monsters?

At least, that was what I was thinking before I heard a honk.

Do sea monsters honk? I mean, I wouldn't know since I've never actually encountered one before, but I scarcely think they would. No, this honk was the same honk that boats produce.

"It's-it's a boat," Star said in disbelief as it came closer. "A ship."

Star was right. It was a ship. It was sailing slowly on the water, and I could almost make out the people on it who were looking through binoculars and holding torches. And, right there on the side of the boat, I was able to make out some writing. The ship was called the – Oh my God.

It was called the S.S. Manson.

That was no ordinary ship, that was my parent's yacht. They had bought it a few years ago just for their social statics, and had been planning on buying a new and more modern one in a couple of months.

"That's my parent's ship," I said aloud, a grin forming on my face. "Those are my parents!"

I recognized two figures looking through those small and gold royal binoculars. I saw the same flaming red and golden blond of my mom and dad's hair. I even saw someone else with white hair beside them that seemed a little shorter and sitting. Grandma! That was my grandma! They we were all here!

"Mine too!" Paulina squealed when she caught sight of her giant father and mother. "And Star, look, that's your mom!"

"Those are mom and dad," Danny said in excitement as he pointed to the boat. "And Jazz!"

Similar shouts of excitement and longing radiated through the group. I began walking closer to the ship, and the others followed. We all yelled and waved and jumped up and down as to attract attention to ourselves. They saw us. I saw the captain point at us and yell directions to his crew, who seemed to run at the speed of light. When the other parents heard him, they all rushed to edges and stared at us, smiling and crying and yelling in joy.

I turned to Danny, thinking I might explode from how happy I was. "They found us!" I yelled in excitement. "They're actually here!"

Danny and I locked in a hug, and I let my tears of happiness fall over my cheeks. "We're going home," I said aloud, sniffing as I buried my head in Danny's neck. "We're going home."

We were saved.

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**A/N: **Yay! FINALLY a non-cliffhanger. Well, not really, but hey, they were finally saved! And I'm almost finished! I think there'll be one more chapter plus a prologue and this story is finito! YAY!

Hey, see how I updated two days later? That's how inspirational your reviews are :D I love you guys.. Really.

REVIEW! XD


	17. Confessions Are Better Said At Home

**Author's Note: **Well, olo there! XD Well, I hate and love to say that this is the final chapter! I know I said there might be an epilogue - er, I said prologue, but I got confused :P Sowiee - but when I sat in front of the computer I literally had nothing to write! :O, Besides, I think the ending here was pretty good, and was happy where I left off the characters! And, about the people who requested a sequel, well, as much as I would love to, I can't :P I seriously have no idea how I'm supposed to write a sequel to this, since the whole story was about the island and the curse, and I don't think I have enough plot bunnies for a sequel :( Sorry if I disappointed anyone :P

But you sure didn't disappoint me! XD Thank you SOOO much for everybody you read and reviewed this story, I wouldn't have been able to come to this end without you guys! You guys truly rock and were my true inspiration :) So, you go give yourselves a pat on the shoulder and buy yourself something nice :D

**Disclaimer: **blah blah blah, I don't own Danny Phantom, I own the plot, you know the drill :D

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_Chapter 17_

_Confessions Are Better Said At Home_

_First Beach, Lost Island_

_Sam's POV_

The ship docked onto the shore and a wooden staircase was put at the edge of the ship. Some parents – like Danny's parents and Jazz – raced down to the island to greet their children, while other parents – like mine – were too shocked to move that we had to go up the ship to them.

"Mom! Dad!" I said in happiness as I ran into their arms. "I missed you so much!"

I never thought I would ever feel this happy to see my parents. I mean, yeah, sure, they were always away and wouldn't accept who I decided I wanted to be, but they were still my parents. And I couldn't be any happier to see their familiar faces and hear their elegant accents and expensive clothing and jewelry. I unlocked myself from their embrace and crouched in front of grandma to hold her tight. I tried not to hold onto her too tightly as she was so fragile, but she was holding me too hard and none of us seemed to give a damn.

"Oh, honey," mom said, dragging me into another hug. "We thought we lost you!"

By this point I could feel tears in my eyes. Okay, so maybe this island can do more than scare the hell outta you, it can also cause you to cry. A lot. "Me too, mom," I said softly as I was caught in her embrace. I should've probably pointed out that it was _her _fault I was shipwrecked in the first place, but now, I felt like thanking her. If it wasn't for this island, I never would've gotten along with the others, I never would've appreciated my life, and I never would've realized my feelings for Danny.

Danny. I looked over my mom's shoulder and saw him coming up the wooden staircase onto the ship, his parents and Jazz literally clinging to him. I even saw Maddie crying into her son's shoulder from how happy there were.

He and I locked gazes for a moment, and all he did was smile. I grinned back, and directed a thumbs-up towards his way. He chuckled a bit, before he was being dragged off by his parents towards their cabin.

My mom let go of me, and wiped the tears that were spilling down her face. "Oh, Sammy, we thought we'd never see you again."

"Once we were able to track down the ship and realized that it crashed, we were so worried that something terrible might've happened to you," dad joined in, looking concerned and worried like, well, like a dad would.

"But that doesn't matter now," grandma said, looking at my parents sternly as if to say 'Don't pressure her too much'. "All that matters is that you're safe with us now."

I grinned at grandma. "And nothing would make me happier."

* * *

You can imagine what happened after that. Everybody was happy and relieved, and parents scurried about to make sure their kids were fed, bathed, and properly dressed. You can imagine how shocked parents became when they took in our appearance: Ripped clothes, dirt all over us, tangled up hair, bruises, and, the occasional bad smell.

My parents immediately led me to their cabin, which was, of course, in first class. That might've been a rescue mission and class wouldn't really have mattered, but they wanted everything to be presentable, as my father said.

Thankfully, grandma remembered to bring me some clothes, my hairbrush and some perfume. My mother literally dragged me all the way to the bathroom when we first entered the cabin, demanding me to get cleaned up.

You cannot believe how relieved and at peace I was when the water poured down on me. It was like it was both washing my body and washing away the bad memories. It was soothing, and the hot water relaxed my sore muscles. I changed in the bathroom – my grandma thankfully didn't let my parents sort out the clothes, since I found that everything in the bag was black. Ah, the sweet smell of Goth.

So, dressing into my black t-shirt and plain purple trainings, I got out of the bathroom to only find my grandma there, reading a book.

"Hey," I said as I got my hairbrush and started running it through my messed up hair. "Where are mom and dad?"

She looked up from her book and smiled sweetly. "They're with the captain, checking the list of who were on the boat and had gone missing."

I opened my mouth in an 'Oh', and continued brushing my hair. It took me almost fifteen minutes to try and get through all the ruthless tangles in my hair, but I thankfully succeeded. I put down the brush on the dressing table, and looked at my reflection in the mirror. I looked… well, clean.

"Hey, do you have any bandages?" I asked as I finally saw my arm. The wound had decreased and stopped hurting by now, but every once in a while it would ooze a little blood. I think this might need stitches.

"Yes, why?" grandma said as she looked up at me. I gestured to my arm, and grandma looked shocked. She placed a bookmark in her book, set it down, and rolled her wheelchair towards me.

"That looks bad," she finally said. "I think you might need a doctor."

I nodded, and asked, "Is there one on this ship?"

"Of course there is," grandma said, looking at me as if I should've known that. "Your parents made sure we had everything ready here, from clothes to therapists to doctors."

I snickered. "My parents got a shrink?"

Grandma grinned. "Well, they were just trying to be on the safe side. Maybe one of you children might need mental health."

"Yeah," I muttered under my breath. "Skeletons and dinosaurs can do that to you."

"I hear this one girl was put under mental medication," grandma said. "That girl you said you hated. What was her name again? Oh, right, Paulina."

I frowned in confusion at that. "Why?"

Grandma shrugged. "Poor girl claimed that the island was cursed, and dinosaurs and living skeletons walked on its earth. It was so sad, really."

"Nobody believed her?" I asked, lifting a thread of my hair and putting it behind my ear.

Grandma shook her head, a sad look on her face. "Nobody sane. But some of the other kids seconded what she said, and the poor captain – the one who owned the ship that crashed – said that he and his crew were turned into skeletons too, but were restored to their true form when the curse was lifted." Grandma looked at me weirdly then. "He also mentioned that the curse could only be deactivated for them was if someone jumped into a volcano. The captain said that your friend Danny was the one to be thrown, but that you pushed him out of the way and jumped in instead."

Uh-oh. She was giving me that look. Oh, not the look that said, 'You're also crazy that you believe that story and would let them spread unreal stories.' No, the look on her face clearly said, 'You love that Danny kid so much you would jump into a volcano just to save him?'

I felt the blood rise to my cheeks, and avoided grandma's gaze. But, this was grandma, I could tell her anything. "Well, yeah, that did happen." I looked up at her, and put on my best confident face. "But it did happen, grandma. Paulina wasn't lying or making it up, everything she said was true. It was an old legend really, but the island _was _cursed."

Grandma smiled sweetly. "I know."

"And there _were _dinosaurs," I went on, not paying attention to what she was saying. "This big one kidnapped me and is the reason I have this wound in my arm and–" I finally paid attention to her, and looked at her in disbelief. "You what?"

Grandma rolled her chair closer to me, saying softly, "I know. I believe you."

"Really?" I asked, feeling that she was just playing with me. But the look on her face was so soft and serious that I just had to believe that she believed me. She took my hand in hers, and stroked it slightly. "Really really," she said, imitating that line from the movie Shrek. She knew it was one of my favourite movies, and I couldn't resist the urge to bend down and hug her.

"I love you, grandma," I whispered against her shoulder.

"I love you too, honey," she said softly, and then let go. "Now, you run along now, and I'll go get a doctor."

I smiled and nodded at her, and started walking out the door. I grabbed a jacket first, and got outside and made my way to the back. The ship had docked off the island once they made sure nobody was missing – except, y'know, some of the crewmates who died back there at the island because of the dinosaurs – and was heading straight home. My parents assured me that it wouldn't take less than three hours until we got home, so I wouldn't have to worry about getting homesick on the ship.

I was surprised to find Danny there when I got to the edge. He was staring at the fog, and I couldn't even get a glimpse of the island anymore. We were too far away, and I couldn't be happier.

I walked up to stand beside him. "Hey," I said as I rested my arms on the metal edge.

"Hey," he said, smiling at me. He gestured towards my arm with his head, saying, "How's your arm?"

I shrugged. "Grandma's getting a doctor in a bit, and I wanted to get some fresh air in the meantime."

Danny nodded, and we both turned back to stare at the fog. The wind wasn't as blasting as it was at the island when it rained, but it was strong enough to cause my hair to whip back and forth.

"Well, that was… interesting," Danny said after a moment of silence.

"Interesting?" I said, smirking at him. "All of that was just interesting?"

He grinned. "Got any better words?"

I shrugged. "Well, it was definitely unexpected."

"And unbelievable," Danny said. "Did you see what they did to the captain and crew? They all thought that they might've hit her head and were hallucinating, and made sure they got intensive therapy. They also thought that Paulina might've chosen to believe that just to adjust to what has happened."

I snickered. "Yeah, grandma told me about it. What happened to the others?"

"They shut up," he explained briefly. "When they knew that Paulina's parents were going to take her to a therapist, they decided that it would be best if they kept their mouth shut."

"Yeah, I mean, who would believe us?"

"Jazz did," Danny said, looking confused all of a sudden. "I don't know, she just asked me what happened, and I told her the truth. She told me that as impossible as it was, she trusted that I wasn't making it up."

I nodded in understanding. "My grandma did too. She actually believed me. It's my parents that I'm worried about. I still think they've got their shrink on speed dial for me in case of emergencies."

He chuckled at that, and we looked back in front of us. Everything was back to normal again. No more dinosaurs, no more giant scorpions, and no more walking skeletons. It was just the comfortable silence between me and Danny.

Valerie and Tucker walked over to us then. "Hey, heroes," Tucker teased, smirking at us. Since he already knew what happened, he didn't consider _huge _heroes like the others, just big ones.

I rolled my eyes, saying, "Hey, lovebirds."

Tucker and Valerie looked at each other with wide eyes. "What, you read minds now?" Valerie asked. She was supporting her weight on real crutches now, and if you put the ones she was holding next to the one we built… ours looked like Ugly Betty next to Cameron Diaz. Shudders.

I frowned. "Read minds? I was just teasing."

Danny and I shared glances then looked back at them. "No," we said at the same time as we first saw their intertwined hands.

Tucker grinned at us. "Yep!"

"Well, congratulations," Danny said. "About time, too."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you're one to speak, Phantom."

Danny almost chocked at his one words, and my eyes widened. We both looked at Valerie in shock, and Danny stuttered, "P-Phantom? W-what would make you think that?"

Valerie rolled her eyes, seeing right through our lie. "Oh, please. You may have fooled the others but I'm not stupid, y'know. There was no way that rope could've held both of you. I just put two and two together."

Danny sighed, giving up. "Alright, alright, you got me. I'm Phantom. But look, what happened with your dad, I swear it was an accident–"

"I know," Valerie said as she glanced at Tucker briefly. "Tucker explained everything."

Danny I directed death glares at him, which he subsided by nervous chuckling. "Hey, I was just trying not to let her kick your ass, dude."

We all laughed, and then Danny turned to Valerie. "So, are we cool?"

Valerie smiled, nodding. "Oh, we're more than cool."

He grinned at her, and held out his hand, as if making a truce with her. She rolled her eyes, grinning as she shook his hand.

"Well, see ya for now," Tucker said as he and Valerie went to the other end of the boat to be together. We waved at them goodbye, and Danny and I stood in silence as we digested everything. Huh. Valerie would be a good addition to our team. At least she keeps Tucker occupied.

Then, almost as if I finally realized it, I whispered, "We did it."

"No," Danny said, smiling at me. "You did it."

I locked gazes with him. "But, I wouldn't have been able to without you," I said. "Danny, you may not have been the hero we needed back on the island, but… you're my hero, and you always will be."

Danny smiled at me, and caught me in a hug. "Thanks," he muttered against my neck. I breathed in his scent before we let go, smiling at each other.

Oh God, here it comes. That same tingly feeling I had when Danny was about to jump into the volcano, like someone else was controlling me. But this time, this someone wanted to tell Danny how I truly felt about him. That kiss back there… that kiss was the best thing that had happened on the island, and I had to tell him that. But first, I had to know how he felt about me.

"Danny," I said before I could change my mind. "There's something I need you to tell me."

"Okay," he said, looking indifferently.

"I, uh, well," I stuttered. "How do you, um…"

The words seemed to be stuck down my throat. I swallowed the lump in my throat hard, and tried to encourage myself. I even saw Valerie and Tucker on the other end of the boat encouraging me to do it with hand signals. I took a deep breath to calm myself.

"Uh-huh?" Danny said, urging me to keep going.

"Um, okay," I said, wishing I could stop saying the word _um_. "How do you–"

One of the ship's crew members chose this moment to come and interrupt me. "Excuse me, Miss Manson, but your parents want to you in their cabin for your doctor's appointment."

"Okay, just give me a minute," I said, and he nodded and walked a few steps away to give me some privacy. I turned back to Danny and said, "Look, can you meet me tonight when we get back home and tell me…"

Danny was probably getting frustrated by now. "Tell you what?"

"Miss Manson," the crew dude said again, a worried look on his face. "You really ought to be going."

"Just a minute!" I said angrily, glaring at him.

"Sam," Danny said, frustrated. "Just tell me what you want me to tell you already."

"Tell me…" I finally came to a decision, and decided to go through with it. I reached up to put my hands around his neck, and kissed him. I kept it gentle and brief, but gave myself time to enjoy it. Once I let go, I said, "Tell me how that made you feel."

The crew guy obviously didn't even care that I'd just kissed my best friend, and held my arm to drag me with him. All the while, I'd look back at Danny to see him gaping at me, his hand reaching up to touch his lips every once in a while.

I did. Well, I didn't really do it, but I think that from what I did he could've understood how I felt about him. But… what if he was still Clueless One? Would he think that I just needed to know whether he thought of me as more than a friend so I could reject him? Or did he just think I was a friend and he was going to reject me? Oh God, did I just ruin our entire friendship?

Oh crap. What've I just done?

* * *

"Careful," mom snapped at the chauffeur as he accidentally hit one of the bags against the car. "That thing was expensive."

We were currently in front of our house. My mom had James – the chauffeur, if you remember him – carry our bags, since the butler was currently with his family. James was by far the best reaction I got, as he quickly reached to hug me when we came down from the ship. Of course, he had to endure a lecture from my dad about how he shouldn't lay a hand on me, but I was able to let dad let it go since I was the one he had touched. But, hey, my dad was still my dad, no matter who he had been a few hours ago, all caring and protective.

My arm was so much better now. It turned out I did need stitches after all, and the doctor dragged me all the way to the infirmary so he could take care of my arm. He didn't have to do anything with my foot, because they were just plain scratches that I was sure would turn into scars anytime soon. Valerie, of course, was the first one admitted into the emergency room at the ship, and Tucker had been brave enough to enter the infirmary with her to hold her hand when her leg was being stitched up. Of course, nobody said anything about how the wound was originally there by a bullet, not wanting to get Paulina in more trouble than she already was. We figured that the doctors would figure it out soon enough, but we decided to avoid the truth for once today, since the truth got most of us in intensive therapy. I might be next in line.

"Sorry," James apologized as he steadied the bags in his hands. Poor him, he was carrying two of my parent's gigantic bags. I would have offered to help him, but I was too tired to do so.

We entered the house, and I couldn't help but feel the twinge you get in your stomach that says 'There's no place like home'. I immediately raced up to my room, and couldn't be more relieved to find my same bed, same window, same bedside table, etc. It was nice to finally see a familiar scene in front of you, instead of the changing ones like in the island.

I sighed as I dropped the bag I was carrying on the floor. "Home sweet home." I whispered to myself, smiling. I went over to my closet, and decided to change. I missed my clothes so much. It was finally good to see my usual attire in my closet than being stuck with a match of Paulina and Star clothes. I decided to wear a black dress, since I've been stuck with shorts all of this time and was getting one mean rash. The dress had nothing special to it, actually, it was spaghetti strapped, and the skirt reached right above my knees. I wore a black jacket because of the cold, and decided to wear my black Uggs because I needed comfiness right now. When I walked around my room in my Uggs, I felt like I was walking on mushrooms.

I sighed, and decided to put those mushrooms to use. I went downstairs where my parents were setting up things, and I said, "I'm going for a walk."

"But, Sammy, you just got here," my mother said, catching up with me. "We were going to have a family night for the first time tonight, you know, watch movies and eat popcorn together."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Really mom? You don't even like popcorn."

Mom sighed. "No, I don't. But I want us to take some time together."

I sighed. "I'm just going for a walk. I'll be back in half an hour."

My mom didn't argue with me again. I guess she just thought I needed to clear my thoughts a bit in fresh air. I got out of the house – er, okay, mansion – and started letting my feet lead me through Amity Park. I wasn't planning on going anywhere far; I was just going to walk to the park, and then go back home.

In the middle of my walk, I felt the temperature suddenly drop. I smiled to myself, saying, "I know you're here, Danny."

Just as I suspected, Danny Phantom appeared next to me. He changed back to human, and said, "Hey."

I smiled, and tried to calm down. My heart was pounding like an 808 drum against my chest, and I felt like exploding. "Hey."

We walked in awkward silence for a bit, and I couldn't help but bite my lip against the tension. "So," Danny said, but he didn't say anything after it.

"So," I echoed. The tension was so thick by now that I thought if I got a knife or anything sharp I could've cut it. I felt something drop on my face, and looked up at the sky to see that it was ready to rain. Danny and I stayed where we were, though, not caring about the rain. It was actually soothing how it ran down on us, as if it was helping to wash all the tension away.

"Listen," he said. "About what happened back at the boat…"

Uh-oh. I didn't like his tone. So, before I could make a complete fool of myself, I quickly said, "Listen Danny, I think that by now you probably figured out the fact that I like you more than just a friend. But, I completely understand if you don't feel the same way, just promise me that you won't hate me and would stay my friend and – "

I wasn't interrupted by my suspected rejection; instead, Danny chose to shut me up but connecting his lips with mine.

Okay okay, so I was shocked. I mean, I never thought that Danny would actually like me – scratch that, _love _me back. I mean, yeah, sure, he had been flirting at me back at the island, but back then, I couldn't help but think he was just lonely and was trying some new techniques. But for him to actually love me back was… well, it was almost as unbelievable as dinosaurs still living. But yet, here he was, kissing me.

Once he let go of me, he grinned. "I love you too, Sam."

I only said one word before kissing him again: "Finally."

This was nothing I could've imagined it would be like. When I would imagine Danny and I finally getting together, I would see him tugging a thread of hair behind my ear and placing a gentle kiss on my lips, or we would be at the beach and it would be a beautiful sunset. But yet, this was so much better than I would've imagined. After all, in my book, kissing in the rain was the most romantic one. Wow, I am so cliché.

Once we let go, we just spent five more minutes just staring into one another's eyes. I suddenly remembered something. "Hey, remember when we saw a shooting star on the island and when you asked me what I wished for I didn't tell you?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah."

"You wanna know what my wish was?" I asked, waiting for him to hopefully say yes.

"I already know," Danny said, shrugging. "You wished for us to find a way off the island; we all did."

I smiled, shaking my head. "Do, I didn't wish for that."

Danny frowned in confusion. "Then what _did _you wish for?"

"I wished that you'd feel the same way about me," I said simply. "Back then, I really liked you, and I wanted you to like me back."

Danny grinned, saying, "But I don't like you, Sam." I was almost going to get utterly disappointed before he connected his lips with mine. "I _love _you, Sam."

I smiled again. "I love you too," I said, and we kissed for about the hundredth time that night. I guess I finally got my happily ever after.

"Ha! You owe me a hundred bucks!" An excited voice said, causing me and Danny to look behind us. Sure enough, Tucker was standing there, with whom other than Skulker and Ember.

"Oh alright," Skulker said in annoyance, pulling out a hundred dollar bill and handing it to Tucker.

"You do realize we're standing right here, don't you?" I said in annoyance when no one took notice to me and Danny staring. Once they saw us, Tucker's eyes widened, and he said, "Hey, what's that mom? Coming!"

And he ran off as Skulker and Ember went invisible. I rolled my eyes at them, and turned Danny's face back to mine. "Now, where were we?"

"I believe," Danny said, leaning down. "We were in the middle of something like this."

And then he kissed me.

Being shipwrecked was awesome.

And I never even made it home for family night...

* * *

**A/N: **THE END! XD So, this is how I decided to leave off my story! I couldn't have made it here without you awesome reviewers, your reviews meant the world to me! XD

Thanks to all my of awesome reviewers:_ DrendeSalkash , Horseluvr14, DannySamLover20 , Pokadot Queen95 , dbzgtfan2004, ShadowDog34 , Dark Neko 4000 , Kaydreams , Lyoko'sPrincess , RiellyPhantom , AngelKitty104 , Aquamarine90210, CommanderApple , jc4ever11, Cap. Dead Beard , .71717 , Phantom Misfit , , ImNoHeroImTheVillian , wolfhead, artfan , Avatar Rikki , twinkle957312081 , Rie fan, Dannys A Q T, Blood of the Dawn , Breathe Breathe Breathe , fishy9494 , Jaded Jimmie, xsugarxblossomx , EmberMclain13 , fawnlovesyou , Dark Neko 4000 , Danny Phantom Phanatic. _

If I didn't say your name, then I am really sorry! But I really enjoyed writing this as you all enjoyed reading it! XD Love you guys so much! Thank you!

Anyways, before I end this and stop babbling, can I ask for one tiny request? Okay, so this has been the most successful DP story I have ever written so far, and for the first time, the number of reviews exceeded what I could ever ask for. But, I really just want at least one of my stories to reach 100 reviews. That is my final request. So, please, I really think you guys can pull it off! All the reviewers I mentioned were 34 of you - yeah, I counted, that's how happy I am XD - so, just 9 more reviews until you hit the wanted mark! XD Please and thank you!

This is Looka'sMagicHell, logging off for the last time! XD


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